Is Abbey England in trouble?

[William Bloke]

I've been an Abbey customer since I went out on my own in 2009 and before that when I was working in Walsall we ordered a lot from them. It wasn't unusual for something to be back ordered, these things happen, but over the last 18months or so most of what I want seems to be out of stock. I do a lot of harness so some of it is specialist stuff, but a lot of things are just general saddlery/leatherwork items. I've been waiting (as has my customer) for bridle clips since Christmas. I counted up and I reckon I have about a thousand pounds of stuff on back order. It's really starting to damage my business.

They've raised their prices twice this year.

Has anyone else noticed something similar?

Should we be worried? 

[Constabulary]

What does Abbey say? Would not surprise when certain things go down and prices go up because of BREXIT. Maybe raw materials became harder to get for them. I checked with College Sewing and they do not deliver to EU countries since Brexit took place. Quite a loss for them I guess.

[mike02130]

Of course as an  American, I don't know much (sarcasm intended) but with all the new postal regulations and VAT rules and all, no one seems happy.  Can a UK company keep in business by just selling to UK customers?  There are a lot of Etsy sellers that won't sell to the UK and Europe because of all the new rules.  Below is a notice from an EU leather dealer.  It's about exports to UK.  What's the deal?

THE UK
My dearest customers from the UK. The Brexit situation makes our business with your country complicated.
The prices for you do not include VAT (meaning that you do not pay VAT in Europe), however you will be requested to pay import VAT in the UK.
Please note that we can deliver to you if the order total will be more than 160€.
More about the changes here: https://www.gov.uk/import-goods-into-uk

Edited June 24, 2021 by mike02130
add stuff

[Rahere]

35 minutes ago, mike02130 said:

Of course as an  American, I don't know much (sarcasm intended) but with all the new postal regulations and VAT rules and all, no one seems happy.  Can a UK company keep in business by just selling to UK customers?  There are a lot of Etsy sellers that won't sell to the UK and Europe because of all the new rules.  Below is a notice from an EU leather dealer.  It's about exports to UK.  What's the deal?

THE UK
My dearest customers from the UK. The Brexit situation makes our business with your country complicated.
The prices for you do not include VAT (meaning that you do not pay VAT in Europe), however you will be requested to pay import VAT in the UK.
Please note that we can deliver to you if the order total will be more than 160€.
More about the changes here: https://www.gov.uk/import-goods-into-uk

The original idea of VAT was to pay for Europe, in the EEC's economic interventions aimed at levelling the playing field. It inevitably meant economies of scale boosted the larger economies while others like Ireland became tax havens for transnationals. The UK got pissed off because we got virtually nothing back (farm subsidies being internal to the Nation). As Head of Finance of a precursor body (WEU) my thoughts are unprintable.

With the withdrawal, VAT on exports is no longer applicable in the UK, but is at the European frontier, so there's a change in rate betwwen the UK's and the rate charged in France, Belgium or the Netherlands. The same applies in reverse. It shouldn't affect other countries, so this answer's BS.

What may be more of an issue is the chaos the Chinese caused in shipping 8 months back, getting back into operations without checking orders were still valid. As a result, a wave of containers arrived which businesses couldn't handle, being in lockdown: many have gone bust, and so the boxes are blocking the ports. Freight costs have doubled, making the problems worse: there's a post on their blog today setting a minimum order value of EUR151/GBP131 on orders from Europe, which I think may be caused by chaotic bureaucracy for lesser amounts.

Another issue could be materials sourcing, as the UK's fast giving up on China: JIT only works if the flow's steady, but shipping from the far east has become a headache, They have their own foundry, though, so may be more resilient: the daughter of the house is learning the business from the practicalities, doing what you're doing here, so there doesn't seem to be any issues with long-term dedication. It's just the cost of everything's bumped up, which is actually good news economically,. 

[William Bloke]

To be clear, I am a UK customer (Actually only about 30 miles from Knutsford.) And VAT registered. So most of those issues shouldn't affect our business.

However I'm not interested in causes, I'm worried about the symptoms. I've had stocking problems from Chinese imports, UK sourced goods and lorinery from their own foundry.

Also the excuses I get from Richard are getting a bit desperate. On one order I waited several months for I was told "We tried to contact you to say it was ready, but were unable to." They were of course able to contact me just fine to send me invoices.

Another time when I placed a Sedgwick order I was told it was out of stock. When I asked how long it might take I was told they would steal a few butts from someone else's order and it would be with me by the end of the week.

We are all struggling with Brexit and covid, but this is not the behaviour of a firm that is coping.

It's a worry because so many to of us rely on them.

[fredk]

Can you get what you need, or some of it from Le Prevo?

Sometimes, with other companies, I find that by cancelling a really overdue back order from one place and getting it in from another makes the first company shift themselves

[William Bloke]

10 minutes ago, fredk said:

Can you get what you need, or some of it from Le Prevo?

Sometimes, with other companies, I find that by cancelling a really overdue back order from one place and getting it in from another makes the first company shift themselves

Not really, Abbey own Sedgwick and their foundry pretty much has a monopoly on a lot of saddlery and harness stuff.

A lot of independent saddlers and also firms like the new Geo Barnsley rely on them.

The leather isn't so much of a problem, Firms like White's have already moved away, and if Sedgwick Harness stops being made another company will step in. It's the lorinery that worries me.

Edited June 24, 2021 by William Bloke

[jcuk]

Have seen so things that made think something is not as it should be, a customer wanted some things made up i thought i had the buckles already i was wrong checked with Abbey they were out of stock also checked Le Prevo, no joy so went F Martin & Son who had what i needed. Also have noticed certain colours in the weight of leather i needed out of stock. I really hope they not in trouble its not only lorinery, leather it Equus rubber products amongst other companies they have saved which will hit hard it they are really hope they are not. 

[William Bloke]

27 minutes ago, jcuk said:

Have seen so things that made think something is not as it should be, a customer wanted some things made up i thought i had the buckles already i was wrong checked with Abbey they were out of stock also checked Le Prevo, no joy so went F Martin & Son who had what i needed. Also have noticed certain colours in the weight of leather i needed out of stock. I really hope they not in trouble its not only lorinery, leather it Equus rubber products amongst other companies they have saved which will hit hard it they are really hope they are not. 

Totally agree about Equus. Do they own Stubbs too?

[jcuk]

Not sure but a good chance they do.

I can remember using Equus rubber reins grips that i think were made in India or Hong Kong when i was working out in the middle east they had a short life span as you know they can only be done  a couple on times the life span of the reins were shorter than they should have been that was before Abbey took them over.

 

Edited June 24, 2021 by jcuk

[William Bloke]

Agree the rein grips are nice. And remember, you don't just buy equus overreach boots, you invest in them!

 

[Klara]

On 6/24/2021 at 6:18 PM, mike02130 said:

Of course as an  American, I don't know much (sarcasm intended) but with all the new postal regulations and VAT rules and all, no one seems happy.  Can a UK company keep in business by just selling to UK customers?  There are a lot of Etsy sellers that won't sell to the UK and Europe because of all the new rules.  Below is a notice from an EU leather dealer.  It's about exports to UK.  What's the deal?

THE UK
My dearest customers from the UK. The Brexit situation makes our business with your country complicated.
The prices for you do not include VAT (meaning that you do not pay VAT in Europe), however you will be requested to pay import VAT in the UK.
Please note that we can deliver to you if the order total will be more than 160€.
More about the changes here: https://www.gov.uk/import-goods-into-uk

The funny thing is that I have not yet seen a UK web site offering lower prices (without VAT) for EU customers, though I understand we'd have to pay VAT (which as far as I know is around 20% for most goods in most countries) when the goods enter the EU. For this reason I've only ordered two books, where I hoped they'd slip through (or Amazon and E-Bay would handle things), which has worked so far. For whereas financing one government is a fact of life I've more or less accepted, I'm not willing to finance two! So no big orders from the UK for me...

@William Bloke What exactly are you looking for? Pethardware have a pretty good selection of saddlery hardware. Goods would have to go through customs, but at least you'll be getting them. Provided they have what you need...

[fredk]

Lorinery; I had to look that up. Everyday we learn somat new  

[Rahere]

It's French for ornary. Or in the case of the Health Minister, the bit on the side.

[chrisash]

No its not its metal objects used in horse tack and a very old livery company

[jcuk]

On 6/24/2021 at 6:19 PM, Rahere said:

Of course as an  American, I don't know much (sarcasm intended)

Oh i thought it was this

JCUK

[mike02130]

8 hours ago, jcuk said:

Oh i thought it was this

What a dumb ass remark.

Edited June 28, 2021 by mike02130
added info

[jcuk]

 

 

8 hours ago, mike02130 said:

What a dumb ass remark.

Lorinery.   Ironically i was being ironic and i meant no offence.

JCUK

Edited June 28, 2021 by jcuk

[mike02130]

Hmm, it must be the language barrier. I looked up the word. We’re cool. 

[jcuk]

No worries i do sometimes look at things sideways on, my better half always says a lot of people don't  know how to take me at times.

 

JCUK 

[TomE]

Will put in a plug for Batz Corp as a reliable provider of quality brass and stainless hardware for tack.  I have more luck shopping from their PDF catalog then searching the website with a part number for price/min. qty.  https://www.batzusa.com/