We Are Moving!

Started by Leon, 26 January 2021, 09:10:41 PM

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Leon



We've been keeping this very quiet for a long time, but we can now announce that we are moving to our very own premises!  This is the culmination of 3 years of careful planning at our end, trying to manage the finances and build a deposit, whilst still paying the bills and keeping up our heavy release schedule.  But it's all come together just in time!

We grew out of our current unit a long time ago and we've had to hold back on some plans due to the limitations of our workspace.  Our unit is essentially a large breeze block cavern so it is very cold, very open and very dusty most of the time.  With it being a rented unit it's also difficult to make many changes to the structure, as we would just have to undo everything again when we eventually moved out, so it's never been viable for us to install partition walls, dropped lighting or mezzanine floors.

The new place solves all of these problems instantly, taking us from 1400sq/ft of compact cavern to over 4000sq/ft of proper rooms and separate workshop, so we can have a large casting workshop, a separate laser machine room, a dedicated packaging room, a kitchen, staff area, large office and... a 700sq/ft retail space!   That's right, there will soon be a proper Pendraken shop that you can come and visit for your gaming goodies!

All of this is contained in our own grounds, all fenced off and secure, with parking to the front.  We've also got a separate building to the rear (about 20ft square) that might make a lovely little gaming room for people to hire...

We'd hoped to be able to announce this news a lot earlier but it was almost scuppered entirely by the Covid situation.  Getting viewings on properties is hard enough to begin with, but with so many businesses struggling at the moment the banks are extremely reluctant to lend at all.  It's taken over 2 months of jumping through constant hoops for the bank to finally agree to our commercial mortgage, so it's been a nervous time.  They also insisted on a much higher deposit than we'd originally planned for, but the pandemic actually helped on that front as the increased sales have allowed us to put away a bit extra to cover that.

So the rough plan at the moment is to get the purchase completed and get our keys in mid-March.  There's about 2 weeks worth of work to be done inside (new wiring for the machines, decorating, etc) and then we'll need around 2-3 weeks to transfer the business over.  Unfortunately we will need to close temporarily during that bit, but it should only be for about 2 weeks.  We may leave the website up and running but on the understanding that there might be some delays on shipping.

Finally, we want to thank all of you for your support and custom for all of these years.  Getting our own premises is a massive step for our business and gives us the security to move forward with so many new and exciting projects.  Whether you started buying from us 29 years ago or placed your first order last week, every single one of you has contributed to this move and we are eternally grateful to you.  We hope that you'll continue to support us on the next step of the journey!


I imagine that there might be one or two questions on all of that, so fire away!

www.pendraken.co.uk - Now home to over 7000 products, including 4500 items for 10mm wargaming, plus MDF bases, Battlescale buildings, I-94 decals, Litko Gaming Aids, Militia Miniatures, Raiden Miniatures 1/285th aircraft, Red Vectors MDF products, Vallejo paints and much, much more!

Steve J

Well that's fantastic news :)!!! Fingers crossed it all goes through smoothly.

toxicpixie

Excellent news! If I'm ever dragged up to the northeast by work again I'll drop in :)
I provide a cheap, quick painting service to get you table top quality figures ready to roll - www.facebook.com/jtppainting

jimduncanuk

Best of luck with all that.
My Ego forbids a signature.

mmcv

Congratulations! :D That's great news. All being well I should be moving into a new home around then too. Good times all around!

pierre the shy

Hope it all goes well for you Leon :-bd

I was lucky enough to be able to visit Pendraken's current premises.last time l was in the UK in 2015 and Leon gave me a quick tour of the unit....it's pretty compact. Hopefully one day l will be able to get back and visit the new shop, but it will be a while yet till international travel gets back to some degree of normality.

In the meantime l will do my best to assist with further orders 🙂
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
we are not now that strength which in old days
moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are.

kipt

Great news.  Now you just need a California annex...

steve_holmes_11

Congratulations, and best wishes for the move to your new base.

Orcs

Great News , Congratulations to you all.

While your sales to us may have financially made this possible, its the all your hard work, brilliant customer service , to say nothing of the friendliness found dealing with you all.

I remember helping Sunjester and another friend operating as 'Behind the Lines' at a show  (can't remember which show), perhaps 26 years ago.  Dave was on the next table.  He had a 6 foot table and on it were 30-40 army packs of the then small range. (including a certain DBA army that I have promised never to mention on this forum. --   Oh how i wish I had bought one for posterity).

He was hoping 10mm would take on so he could expand the range a bit.  Well you have expanded hugely and deservedly so.

You should all  be very proud of what you have achieved.

I hope the move goes smoothly, and no doubt a 2 week closure will cause mass panic in the Forum and you will have a glut of orders before and after the move.   :)

The cynics are right nine times out of ten. -Mencken, H. L.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. - Robert Louis Stevenson

Westmarcher

Does this mean Phil gets two weeks off?   

(Best wishes on the move)  :)
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.

Sandinista

Great news, it is contagious as we've just bought our 1st house here in NZ :)

Cheers
Ian

toxicpixie

Spot on as well Ian!

On 10mm, if we'd known how good it would be 26 years ago we'd never have bought any 15's :D
I provide a cheap, quick painting service to get you table top quality figures ready to roll - www.facebook.com/jtppainting

Scorpio_Rocks

Fantastic news! Congrats to all at Pendraken!

Very much deserved for all your hard work and excellent customer service.

Good luck!
"Gentlemen, when the enemy is committed to a mistake - we must not interrupt him too soon."
Horatio Nelson.

whubble

Best wishes and every success for the future :)

jambo1

Great news for all concerned with the business, all down to your hard work and well deserved. Best of luck for the future, it's certainly looking good. :)