Dear customers, 2021 was again not an easy year for any of us. Having the small hope during the middle of last year that the global crisis might soon be over, the corona pandemic continues to keep us in suspense. Added to this are the imponderables that the so-called "Brexit" will continue to entail.
Unfortunately, the effects of the Covid 19 infection on the global movement of goods and the aftermath of Great Britain's exit from the European Union are also having an impact on our supply chains. Since we mainly source our latex material from Great Britain, there have been not inconsiderable delays in receiving the material for some time. Our suppliers are obviously having massive problems maintaining their stocks and delivery times for imports from the UK to the European Union are beyond good and bad. In some cases we ourselves wait 8-10 weeks until we receive not so common latex colors and we can start producing your orders.
We therefore ask you to excuse these sometimes unusually long waiting times. Unfortunately, the reasons for the sometimes massive delays are beyond our control. Our hands are literally tied here - at least for a short time.
Successful search for alternatives
In the background we have been looking for alternative delivery routes for a long time. This endeavor has proven to be a bit tricky as the UK is the linchpin of the latex trade in Europe and there are long-term exclusive contracts with manufacturers from Asia. But we finally found what we were looking for - in the middle of the European Union.
We are currently redesigning our webshop so that we can also offer you the new latex material via our automated ordering channels. This process will take a while. Until then, you can of course inquire about the availability of your desired material by email. We can also obtain standard colors such as black and red with a thickness of 0.5-0.6 mm from our new supplier in the EU at short notice, so that waiting times can be massively reduced. We will be happy to inquire about all other colors for you - however, only a thickness of 0.5 - 0.6 mm is available.
Longer waiting times for unusual colors and thick materials
In particular for more unusual colors such as metallic purple or jade green as well as material thicknesses of 0.7-0.8 mm, we are unfortunately still dependent on the British middlemen, so that there can be longer waiting times. This does not always have to be the case - sometimes the deliveries reach us within 1-3 weeks. Sometimes the dealers have to order and import the material themselves. If the German customs have objections that need to be resolved, or if the delivery services are overloaded (such as in the run-up to Christmas), we have to wait 8-10 weeks for the material to arrive in individual cases.
In these cases we will of course start producing your order as soon as the material has arrived. Nevertheless, such lengthy delivery routes naturally exceed our usual production and delivery times, so that in rare cases delivery times of approx. 10-12 weeks can occur. We apologize for any inconvenience. In case of doubt and if things have to be done quickly, please ask in advance of a planned order how the desired color and material thickness will relate to availability.
We are happy to offer our regular customers the option of announcing planned orders in advance so that we can already process the material purchase and thus reduce the actual delivery times a little.
Sorry for the long wait
In conclusion, all we can say is: Sorry for the inconvenience and the long waiting times for your latex orders. Unfortunately, these global conditions are largely beyond our sphere of influence. We will of course continue to try to find solutions to the problem and will of course keep you up to date.
