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    Iron Heart Fall/Winter 2025 Collection Preview - Now Live

    How we are coping as a business during the Covid-19 Pandemic

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    • ROmanR
      ROman
      Haraki san Prodigy
      Joined:

      We are living in very trying and scary times,  I greatly appreciate the business plan that IHUK and IHJP has projected. I also appreciate what the coworkers at IHUK and IHJP are doing to maintain this business, which I feel will succeed in the long run. It's reassuring to hear this. Thank you.

      last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • hajdukH
        hajduk
        啓蒙家
        Joined:

        Very useful Giles! Really. Thanks. Take care!

        Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk

        "Ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have" James Baldwin.

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        • neph93N
          neph93
          見習いボス
          Joined:

          Shout outs on social media… may or may not help. Always worth punt though...

          https://www.instagram.com/p/B-PnGM_jkY1/?igshid=1dixz1jyxzlor

          «Stevie Heighway on the wing!
          We had dreams, and songs to sing…»

          • Dame Vera Lynn
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          • ChapC
            Chap
            見習いボス
            Joined:

            Sure

            God has blessed you richly, so get down on your knees and thank him. Don’t forget the less fortunate or God will personally kick your ass. I’d love to do it for him, but I can’t be everywhere. Willie Nelson

            last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • neph93N
              neph93
              見習いボス
              Joined:

              That was hysterical @Chap [emoji23]

              «Stevie Heighway on the wing!
              We had dreams, and songs to sing…»

              • Dame Vera Lynn
              last edited by 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • S
                Snowy
                Joined:

                🙏🏻 thank you for sharing G. I can only imagine how difficult this is for everyone involved in the supply chain. I've been thinking of you all a lot recently and am hopeful you can find a way to ride through this safely. It sounds like everything that can be done is being done, fingers crossed!!

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                • GilesG
                  Giles
                  IHUK Crew
                  Joined:

                  One of the issues we have is that the Japanese side of the business has been shrinking for some time, it has been the international market that has been helping out.  The Japanese market will shrink a lot more because of CV-19, we have to hope that the international side of the business can keep it's head above water enough to compensate for the domestic drop in demand.  It's going to be tough…...What we look like when we come out the other side depends entirely upon how this thing lasts (obvious point, sorry)....

                  "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

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                  • O
                    Omega Man
                    Haraki san Student
                    Joined:

                    Thanks for the explanation.  Not a situation to be lightly taken.  This has become a global problem.  I am hopeful everything will work out for everyone at the end.

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                    • louisboscoL
                      louisbosco
                      啓蒙家
                      Joined:

                      when stringent measures starting taking place, shops began mostly trading online as an alternative. now, i'm slowly starting to see online shops closing. hanon boutique, a store that mostly do sneakers and based in scotland, announced their closure of online shop and warehouse for outgoing shipment a few days ago.

                      do you think it'll ever come to this situation? is there a way to mitigate it from becoming that way?

                      "Loyalty is a two way street. If i'm asking for it from you, then you're getting it from me."

                      • Harvey Specter
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                      • GilesG
                        Giles
                        IHUK Crew
                        Joined:

                        For us to continue with the online store in the short to medium term, it depends on 4 main factors.

                        1. That our staff remain well.  One of the reasons we only have only 2 people in the office, is to protect the others.  If one of the 2 contract the virus, then they will both have to self isolate, but we can back-fill with other staff.
                        2. UPS still pick up in Japan, still deliver to our office and still deliver to customers
                        3. The Kojima store remains open, Haraki is working on implementing a staffing regime like we are doing in the UK
                        4. The UK government continue to allow our staff to go into work

                        We are doing everything and will continue to do everything we can to keep the online store open.  In all honesty, we need to create as much revenue as we can to survive until the other side.

                        "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

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                        • GilesG
                          Giles
                          IHUK Crew
                          Joined:

                          We have just had a very useful and uplifting video call with H, Tom and Sarina.  We discussed our individual challenges, so we are all aware of what is working and or hurting each party and we discussed what each party could do to make things easier for us as a whole.  Haraki is off to visit the factories now, so he can have similar discussions with them.  He liked te Zoom meeting so much, that he will probably start doing the same thing with the factories going forward.

                          "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

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                          • S
                            Streetwise Hercules
                            Raw and Unwashed
                            Joined:

                            That’s good to hear, Giles.

                            I clumsily mentioned to the other half at breakfast that I’d like to buy something from you guys to help out. You know, selflessly.
                            She’s not exactly onboard, but I think I may break her yet.

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                            • GilesG
                              Giles
                              IHUK Crew
                              Joined:

                              How very selfless of you….

                              Thank you..... 🙂

                              "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

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                              • O
                                Omega Man
                                Haraki san Student
                                Joined:

                                I have noticed a number of retailers are having a sale.  Would this be a viable fix to smooth out cash flow in the short term?  This is far from being a "normal" business cycle, every stage from the supply chain to its end users are influx.  I do not own/run a business, so my perspective and knowledge is very limited.

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                                • GilesG
                                  Giles
                                  IHUK Crew
                                  Joined:

                                  Personally, for a brand and the brand's whole ecosystem, I think that holding a sale is very bad business.  If the reductions are not policed, reductions become a race to zero and everyone loses out.  If we did suggest that IHUK and our all of our retailers do reduce product by a set amount, IHUK would be the ultimate winners. We are an online store, that's really all we do, so we are fucking good at it.  We have stacks more inventory than any of our retailers and certainly some of our retailers cant even run their online stores at the moment.  So basically we would screw our retailers.  And say we did hold a sale to shift stuff, we could come out the other side with compromised inventory levels and it would take months to build up stock with money we don't have because the retailers have not had bricks and mortar customers for weeks if not months, so they still need extended credit terms.  I have heard of some shops that have already had sales, let's say at 25% off, the sale went amazingly well, but guess what? They now have fuck all product and less money to purchase restocks.

                                  We agreed this morning with Haraki, IHUK will take out loans to protect our business from the impact of retailers slowing down payments and/or possible bad debts if a retailer simply can't pay (we think we have a $20K exposure in this regard already), Haraki will give us plenty of leeway with payment terms to him.  Haraki, on the other hand, will take out loans so that we can still place orders on the workshops, we need to protect them so that they stay in business.

                                  Have we got it right?  Have no idea, never been here before. Could my position change?  Yes, the world changes every day at the moment.  Twelve days ago I wrote to Haraki and said, when I met with you 4 days ago and I had said "by the middle of next week the whole of our retailer network will likely be shut", you'd have thought me mad.  When I went out for dinner with him 2 and half weeks ago, the biggest problem we discussed was a possible shortage of constructional thread…

                                  "OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011

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                                  • Bfd70B
                                    Bfd70
                                    Raw and Unwashed
                                    Joined:

                                    I really enjoyed that response. Because relatively speaking IH is a small operation it made it easy to wrap ones head around the impact of the current situation to businesses.
                                    In the meantime money isn’t going to my barber or bartender so a CPO and a Westpoint are one the way.

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                                    • Madame ButtonflyM
                                      Madame Buttonfly
                                      IHUK Crew
                                      Joined:

                                      Thanks all for your encouragement and support  😘

                                      As G said we've never expected or encountered anything like this before.  One of the questions from the bank about the emergency loan was:

                                      "When the Pandemic is resolved, how long do you believe it will take you to start recovery?"

                                      I found that tricky to answer.  I wanted to say "We've no bloody idea when it will be resolved, so I've no bloody idea!"

                                      Instead I wrote "Another difficult question to answer, because none of us knows when the Pandemic will be resolved.  If we base this on a period of 4-6 months before the Pandemic is at least considered “under control” then we should be able to start to recover quickly.  We expect to keep our staff team intact and motivated, and we are extremely fortunate to have a very large, loyal, international customer base." Which is the truth, and we're very grateful for it.

                                      If they ask any more impossible questions, I might be reaching out to you guys to help with my responses!  😃

                                      AKA Mrs G

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                                      • S
                                        Snowy
                                        Joined:

                                        Can we send you photos of both new and worn gear from around the world to attach as "Appendix A"? Maybe 5-600 photos in a day or two to show loyalty? 🙂  😃

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                                        • SeulS
                                          Seul
                                          Joined:

                                          "Give them the loan or the bunny gets it!.."

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                                          • Madame ButtonflyM
                                            Madame Buttonfly
                                            IHUK Crew
                                            Joined:

                                            Nice - if very different - tactical suggestions @Snowy and @Seul  😃

                                            Happily I think we'll be fine getting the loan, just may take time because we entered this strange phase of our business life in a strong position, my bank manager will understandably be prioritising the businesses who need the dosh soonest.

                                            AKA Mrs G

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