In Short:

We’re going to be okay, but will need to work closely with our customers for the month of April to manage our ability to produce and ship WindsorONE against customers’ needs, given a short gap in raw material flow.

In Detail:

We have containers from ForAction starting to ship to our USA WindsorONE plants beginning March 22^nd.  This will be just over three weeks with zero shipments from Chile to the states, and with the 2-3 week container travel time, our ability to manufacture and ship will tighten at the USA plants for a few weeks.

We expect about 50% of normal WindsorONE shipments come the week of 3/29, and zero WindsorONE shipments week of 4/5; however, likely arriving shortly thereafter will be raw material from ForAction, so we should be back at close to normal come the week of 4/12.  I type “close to normal” b/c without a heavy working inventory, or as we call it “running hand to mouth,” efficiencies will run lower as we’re not able to produce at maximum capacity.  In addition, b/c we’ll be short on shipments week of 3/29 and 4/5, we will be playing catch-up for the month of April.

We will be proactively managing each of your accounts and orders, and when we expect delay caused by the above, you’ll hear from us directly.

It is also possible that some customers will see an increase in freight costs; if, for example, we’re unable to meet your requirements from the Surry, VA plant, then at times it might be possible to ship from the Willits, CA plant.  Of course we would only do so at your discretion.

In advance, thank you for your patience and proactively working to manage your inventories with Jan! 

In Solidarity,

Craig