The busy festive period has kicked off today in South Africa with Black Friday orders arriving non stop as online buyers place their orders via Amazon, Takealot and One Day Only. We also have the online retail websites to fulfil for Walmart and two large sports store retailers. This may also include topping up their stores depending on the sales volumes.
The work leading up to this is the hectic part as this week we had a container arrive at the Durban port on Tuesday afternoon and could not wait for the container to arrive in Johannesburg. Half the container contents needed to be in Cape Town warehouses for the start of Black Friday. A small team flew down on Wednesday and unpacked the container onto another truck leaving for Cape Town as soon as they were finished. The remainder of the container was delivered yesterday. If this had not been done this way these items would not have made the Black Friday sales and the company would have been financially penalised by the online platforms.
Logistical timings are crucial for these peak periods and it is not always that easy to get right. Shipping is a logistical nightmare in this country especially with a Port such as Durban ranked the worst in the world. Last night a container arrived at 5.56pm and it arrived just in time as this is your worst nightmare knowing it was solely weights. This took the team 4 hours to off load and you can imagine this is back breaking work.
The equipment like the pallet jacks take most of the strain as they are not designed for such heavy loads. A weight container would be around 50 tons with most of it being moved at some point by hand.
I checked in with the punch bag crew this morning as they were also helping out with the weight container last night and the extra hands we had hired we kept on today to help out. Maybe there will be a keeper amongst the extra casual staff we took on and we are always on the look out. We run a tight ship
with everyone chipping in wherever they can and why you need a reliable team.
What I found quite funny was the online sales were diluting their work for the one order they have due for next week Thursday. As fast as they completed a bag it was being whisked off to be delivered by courier. We shall know by Tuesday next week how far we are behind on that order depending on how many sales are processed over the next 3 days. This is the unknown of online sales and you have to be prepared for what ight happen next. Running out is not an option and whatever orders come through need to be processed.
Thankfully I have 10 tons of material waste arriving on Tuesday morning which I will be rationing out and keeping a close eye on. I have mentioned before this material waste is like gold dust to us and is the back bone of the punching bag business.
When I was away in the UK last week one roll of trampoline material arrived which is a drop in the ocean compared to what we require. Next year the punch bag business will fund the trampoline business and we will remove all competitors very quickly. No one locally can compete with us and we will rule the trampoline roost next year.
The plan is to order 15-20 rolls of material in 3 or 4 different colors giving customers a choice besides black. Depending on the sizes this would only manufacture 1200 trampoline mats. The material is only part of what is required as a sizeable investment in the d-rings is required and I estimate an order of 250K would be the starting number for those little metal d-rings. This would allow us to manufacture around 4000 trampoline mats and will need every single one of them.
Next year is a year of moving forward and the trampoline business needs to get back on track as I know how big a business this really is. The buying in bulk from the factories we already know and deal with may require a trip next year which I am not looking forward to. There is nothing glamorous about factory visits followed by negotiations and if required it will be as short as possible. I have been a few times many years ago and there is very little sleep followed by not so nice food. This I cannot send my kids to do as the Chinese are sharp with numbers and I can negotiate toe to toe with them and always get a good deal done.