It's Christmas Everybody!!!!
With just a week to until we start tucking into far too much Christmas lunch before falling asleep in front of another repeat of Live and let Die, it's time to look back at 2024 and more importantly look forward to what we have to look forward to the coming year ahead.
This was our 18th year of trading and It feels like we had another good year, once again we have met some great people with a real passion for their vehicles. Earlier this year we came to end of a long term contract that has allowed us to open up our workshop again for product fitting, it's been really nice to see a variety of Aircooled and Classic cars, buses and campers back in the Madmatz workshop. We have had vehicles of all shapes and sizes in for work from campers needing new flooring or curtains and rails through to full furniture fit outs. We have also had a few non VW's in to test us, these included a lovely Saab 96 with a 2 Stroke engine and a V8 Sunbeam Tiger in for fully fitted carpet sets.
Since the dreaded Covid years it has been very noticeable that we have had a lot less visitors to the factory and showroom with many of customers choosing to place their orders on line or over the phone, on this note we have noticed that ever more companies seem to be moving over to email only contact for customers. I can assure you all that this will not be happening here at Madmatz, in fact we are moving in the opposite direction and encouraging customers to come visit us and see the products first hand before ordering. We are aware that a lot of people work during the week so we have taken the decision to start opening the factory shop one Saturday every month. It was this idea of encouraging people to visit that motivated us to have an open day in November, this is something that we used to do years ago and it needed reviving. We had a few nice cars and buses on display plus refreshments all day, now I'll be honest and say that it probably wasn't as well attended as I hoped it would be but this won't stop us from organising another one early in the new year and we hope to see a few more people.
You may have noticed towards the end of this year we had an online sale plus there are a few deals and free product offers on the website, this isn't something that we have done a lot of in the past however we are well aware things are tight for a lot of folk right now so every little helps. Our margins aren't massive so we can't do massive discounts all the time but we will continue to do what we can when we can in the coming year.
One thing we have noticed this year is the growth of our trade customer and reseller market, these guys are out there spreading the Madmatz and Buseyes love all over the world. It's great to work with these guys who share our passion for well made original products.
Next year is looking busy for us already, with a few new products in the pipeline plus we are adding a few new elements to some of our existing products, the first of which is our ability to now print onto our screen covers. This means when you order a new screen cover from us we can personalise it with text, pictures and logos of your club or company.
All that remains now is for me to say thank you, without our customers there would be no sales and without staff there would be no products to sell so thank you to your all for your support again this year it is very much appreciated.
Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and good health in the coming year.
Mark
