2023 has been a really tough year for most small businesses in the UK, and we’re no exception. Customers across the UK are spending a lot less now that the pandemic is behind us and the realities of inflation and the national economic situation are clearly hitting home.
We’ve seen a fall in sales, but I’ve worked hard to offset that and it hasn’t been as bad for us as many others I have spoken to. I’m optimistic that once Summer is over we’ll see an increase in spending again, and that a lot of people have simply chosen to use their money to get out of the house rather than buy gear. Perfectly reasonable after recent times.
I’ve invested massively in production line equipment in the first half of 2023. We now have our own pick and place machine, conveyor reflow, a high-end wave soldering machine and all the tools to support that such as an SMD stencil machine and paste fridge. This means we are now almost fully self-reliant and all pedals are manufactured in-house. Whatever the future brings we are well-placed to deliver.
Our flagship Grand Classic pedal, due to be delivered soon, will be the first unit to be manufactured with our new equipment. We had originally planned to make it a hand-assembled through-hole device but my desire to ensure this pedal is ground-breaking resulted in a need for smaller SMD parts and quickly became the motivation for our investment and rapid growth. With the Grand Classic delivered I am optimistic I’ll now be able to deliver even more exciting products in a shorter space of time. I’m confident that the Grand Classic will really raise the bar on nano-scale business in-house electronics manufacturing.