01/01/2024 - Happy New Year

Let’s not pull any punches here, 2023 has been sh*t and thank god it’s over.

I’ve spent the last 15 years building my business, only to find myself being forced to downsize it, to ensure its immediate future.

People are asking why, so here is the reason….

Quite frankly, we’ve been unable to increase our prices in relation to increased costs (wages, utilities and supplies), to a level that means you lovely lot (the Mini community) can afford to use our services. As a result, margins have been massively squeezed and at the same time, sales have massively fallen, combine the two aspects and it means that our current setup no longer works in today's UK.

To elaborate a little, utility costs made last winter tough, but we survived, this was then followed up with increased interest rates, which meant we didn’t get the usual spring high. Then as both combined (utility bills and mortgage payments) as we dropped into this autumn/winter it become abundantly clear that we wouldn’t make it past Christmas. You can literally pin point drops in sales to the day utility costs went up, the day interest rates went up and then the day the heating went on this autumn.

Early decisions had to be made and I made the difficult decision to downsize (the product range, the workforce and the premises) to move the business that I love forward into 2024.

I wouldn’t have got through half as well without my lovely wife, she’s been my absolute rock over these past few months. Thank you for listening and thank you for being by my side.

Anyway...

I’m over at our Winpenny Road writing this and as I’m stood in here you quickly realise that it’s the people at Optimise HQ that have made it a home and not these four walls. I’m already missing the team. It’s quiet here on my own, it’s bizarre and I don’t like it. It’s time to get this place ripped apart and myself moved across to our new artisan HQ in the Staffordshire countryside.

It’s all onwards and upwards from here.  2024, I’ve go this, it’s time to take them on, on my own.

Kind regards,
Andy