Have you already bought your Christmas presents? (... before it's too late...)

... we hear statements like this and similar ones every day in the news and in advertising. Just a few months ago it was toilet paper. Now it's affecting articles across the board.  Panic?  Or a serious situation? Is it all just marketing?  Let me give you a brief update on the supply situation for amateur radio from our point of view.

As we have already published several times, we changed our stock management some time ago. We have managed to keep availability high and delivery times low thanks to the larger storage area and the resulting possibility to place larger orders with our suppliers. Of course, the size of our company, which has now become the norm, has also helped us to cope with this investment. Last but not least, the entire WiMo team has done a super job here, even in difficult situations during the last 18 months!  We hope that we could convince you of our performance.

Since the beginning of this year, however, we have noticed that first small and then larger suppliers are increasingly reporting delivery problems. As a result, we have to deal with unreliability in delivery reliability and longer delivery times from individual suppliers. Unfortunately, this situation is no longer entirely in our control. Our purchasing and product management departments are always trying to find alternatives. Our order processing department tries to ensure accordingly that we can inform you, our customers, in good time in the event of delays.

Unfortunately, it is also the case that we are currently receiving virtually no more of the missing products from a handful of suppliers. In addition to the well-known chip shortages, there also seems to be a lack of basic materials such as aluminium, which is probably partly due to the punitive tariffs that have been introduced. As a result, as well as in the wake of the general post-Corona shock phase, there have been drastic price increases across the board, such as most recently at ICOM. At WiMo you can still benefit from the old prices this weekend - just click here: WiMo webshop

In addition, the price of aluminium has increased by more than 60% for us - but seems to be stable for the moment.  In other cases, like the new ID-52 from ICOM, the launch has been delayed. Here is the link to the video in which Ray Novak (US Product Manager Icom) explains why the ID-52 will be launched more than a year later than planned (from minute 1:39).

By the way: we always try to show our current delivery situation honestly. This works better and better - especially after our system change.  Every few minutes, the availability display in the shop updates based on our current stock, with few exceptions.

What does that mean for you now? We think that we will have to live with delivery delays from time to time in the next few months. Perhaps a product will be discontinued because individual components are simply no longer available. In general, we see ourselves quite well prepared for the current situation. Nevertheless, we have to expect changes at short notice. We will stay tuned for you.

So if you need a refrigerator, now would probably be a good time to strike. For amateur radio, we would not (yet) advise such panic purchases. Exceptions might be the products that have been in short supply lately.

Nevertheless - "stay tuned" is worthwhile.  Have you already subscribed to our newsletter? With our "WiMo-News" you are always well informed! Simply subscribe here!

PS:

Did you know that...?

If a product you are interested in is currently not in stock, you should still order it via the shop. If you then choose 'bank transfer' as payment method, we will contact you as soon as the product is back in stock. You can then still say "I don't want any more" or change the payment method. This keeps you "on the list", so to speak.