OUCH!!! No More Mann Lake Support for UK
SHOCK HORROR!!!
RE: Mann Lake USA
As you may know, Bee Equipment Ltd, who have been trading as Mann Lake UK, have been the exclusive retailers of Mann Lake Ltd USA products in the UK and across Europe for the past two half years.
Yesterday, at 2.00pm, we were advised that Mann Lake Ltd USA, due to financial pressures in the U.S. are no longer able to support the growing business of Mann Lake UK. To compound the shock of this news to us, this withdrawal of their support will take effect from 5.00pm on Friday 1st of July 2016.
I would like to take this opportunity to reassure you that all orders that have been placed with Mann Lake will be fulfilled.
We at Mann Lake UK, have a dedicated, knowledgeable team of people who, whilst devastated at the news we have just received, are working hard to put together a viable business model for the future, so that we can continue to work together to supply the beekeepers of the UK and Europe with the highest quality beekeeping equipment and related goods.
For the meantime we remain open for business and we are viewing this change in circumstances as a growth opportunity. Although this is clearly not a situation that we would have wished for, it only represents a set-back for us as we will continue to sell our UK sourced products via our new website.
We thank you for your support, and look forward to working with you again soon.
Not surprising?
Mannlake might well have wanted a toe hold in Europe. Pointless being outside it. Website is still open. Iāve just ordered a decent quantity of Ultrabee. UK keepers might be wise to get their 8 frame Langs ordered.
As for getting on with supplying British sourced products they might well founder there. Pity.
Apparently the US Mann Lake are in financial difficulties and they are withdrawing from UK and Europe - you can order until tomorrow if there is stock left but there is no replacement stock coming here when it is gone it is gone.
Friday they close shop and all the workers have 2 weeks to send everything back to US and then they all loose their jobs.
I just spoke to them after I posted here - there will be no sale - Tomorrow is the last day Friday they are closed
Maybe they will be closing in the States as well then?
Itās a shame, While their woodwork was not the best quality they were a good source of cheap kit.
There are plenty of news stories about how investors are pulling out of Britain due to the recent Brexit.
I would say itās not very fair to be saying that it is Mann Lakes financial troubles. That is just a rumour that could do harm to their current business in the US.
I spoke to the staff here in the UK they were the ones who told me - Iām not making it up.
And then went and placed my order - The staff here are very upset. All the UK staff have lost their jobs and BTW Mann Lake were the only place selling 8 frame Lang stuff in the UK - do you really think Iād make such a thing up?
Itās hard enough to get Lang stuff here as it is we will not be able to get the 8 frame stuff here now at all and all the other Lang supplies are expensive
With the greatest of respect, it would seem likely that the weak pound will have an enormous impact on revenue of equipment sold there. If you think about it, they shipped out equipment from the US which may have cost say $20 around 2 weeks ago, and they could perhaps sell it in the UK for GBP 20. As the exchange rate was around $1.50 to the pound, that would be a 50% profit, as they would get $30 for that equipment.
However, since the pound is now trading at $1.30 to the pound since the Brexit vote, and has been lower than $1.20 this week, their profit margins have been reduced by 20-30% just because of the impact of the exchange rate. Knowing the currency markets (I follow them regularly), with the political turmoil in the UK at the moment, further fluctuations and movement to the downside is quite likely over the next few months to several years. I would imagine that profit margins are already tight on beekeeping equipment, so they probably decided that the long term risk of a degraded UK currency was not worth it in their business plan. Just guessing, but I wouldnāt like that kind of exchange rate impact on my export business.
Dawn people will blame anything on the Brexit - to be honest the whole thing was a brainwash campaign from the word go or should I say from the word āBrexitā
The whole message was subliminal from the start, it was never going to be a fair campaign. ML had to cut staff and decide that even though the UK branch was making profit, it had to go.
I did my homework for 2 months before I placed orders 15 months ago and every time hands down ML had the best prices - and being the only supplier of 8 frame kit they had it made from the UK Flow framers.
90% of the brexit hype is lies - anyone who fell for that stunt canāt put 2 and 2 together
I knew I shouldnāt have responded to a post on my birthdayā¦
OK, now I am going to do something uplifting, like paint my nucleus boxes and Tung oil my new deeps from beethinking.com - thanks for the dronesale discount @Matt - I am not a father, and I couldnāt be a mother, but I am very delighted that you didnāt exclude me on those grounds!
Heavens @Valli there was nothing subliminal about either campaign. @Dawn_SD I think your analysis is spot on re costing and profits. It will not be the first company move either. I voted to remain as you know but bleating and chest banging and " I told you so" will get us nowhere. Weāll have to get on and fix it. Italy changes governments like knickers and manages to survive. Weāll manage a brexit.
Oh and happy birthday.
Call the leave campaign Brexit (yes I know it is tweet speak) but the word says what to do "Br exit "
Continually calling the it Brexit gives a subliminal message enough to sway those that didnāt know what to do. A brilliant Marketing ploy, it worked. Thinking people who look and put facts together can see beyond the name, Joe Bloggs in the street who isnāt sure and unable to decipher the facts was given the answer thousands of times a day for the last 6 months - Darren Brown makes a living from these subliminal ploys and brags about it. Marketing is very powerful
Gāday Dawn, many happy returns for today, or was it yesterday? I just got home from picking up a bird box that bees moved into about 6 days ago. Surely it wasnāt a swarm just a few days after our shortest day. Iāll check them out in the morning.
Weāve been making a video of a huge hive in a huge tree that broke just above the bee hive in a huge storm. There was a huge amount of honey in it. Not as much as it would appear. What else was huge? We got hugely lost on our first day. The hive had been there for a LOT of years. A lot of the comb that looked full of honey was mostly thick black comb with not much honey in it. Itās at a place called Black Mountain. We did 2 trips for the honey. I thought I was picking up the bees on the second trip but finished up with another load of honey with the brood I took out to wire up in frames getting chilled while I kept retrieving more honey. Anyway I put the brood in place. In the mean time the bees should regroup, clean up all the honey & hopefully Iāll be able to get them into a box in a day or twoās time. I wont leave it too long just in case the beetle get a start on some of the brood that got chilled & possibly neglected by the bees. I think Iām off topic. Hopefully Iāll be forgiven. ok, take care, bye
[quote]"The FTSE 100 has surged through the level it closed at last Thursday, recovering all of the ground it had lost in the wake of the Brexit vote.
The pound also strengthened against the dollar and euro, while Wall Streetās rally continued for a second day.
Some investors say last weekās sell-off was overdone, while others are betting on central banks to rescue the global economy if needed with more stimulus.
āIt never was the end of the world,ā said strategist Jeff Weniger.
The senior portfolio strategist at BMO Private Bank in Chicago. said: "To have these kinds of reactions was ridiculous.ā
The FTSE 100 share index closed up 3.6% at 6,360.1 after a flurry of last-minute trading.
At the close of trade on Thursday last week, before the referendum vote, the FTSE 100 ended the day at 6,338.10.ā
