Zillablog

Just a quick update: On the 14th of December Cafe Electric commenced holiday shutdown.

While the production employees are on vacation, Mandi and I have been doing inventory and reviewing financial data from the past year. We will be analyzing the current profit/loss situation in light of this years higher production volumes with increasing material and labor costs. So far it looks like we’re hanging in there reasonably well with the increases efficiency of higher volume helping to offset the current high inflation and devaluation of the dollar. Still, I do expect to have to increase prices some in January but as usual I will try to minimize that. I really don’t like making conversions more expensive. We are also forecasting for the new year while making plans to reduce the backlogs further toward our goal of actually having controllers in stock. What a concept! To assist in that, we may once again be hiring more help. Let me be clear: We are not looking for engineers or engineers in training, nor part time workers. We are looking for extremely meticulous and reliable friendly Buddha-like people who can build controllers day in and day out. Someone smart who can get things done. Although a knack for how to best use a screwdriver can be helpful, no technical experience is required. Patience and good eyes are helpful. If you know someone appropriate, please have them email in their resume.
During the shutdown we are not accepting any new orders until the new prices are announced. I am currently performing a long overdue update to the website. I expect the new site to be live early January with much information which hopefully will be easier to find. With any luck new shopping options will also be up and running with the new price schedule.

That’s it for now,
-Otmar