Our industry of making custom cycling and triathlon kit has got a terrible reputation for delivering late. We have heard plenty of stories from clients coming to us about reputable British suppliers (and others!) supplying kit months late, which is frankly unacceptable.
So for 2011 we are going to offer a delivery guarantee on all our orders, because we do not miss our deadlines. The way we work is that once a design has been approved by a client we then give a date by which the kit will be dispatched. Outside of the peak season (May to July) this is generally 4 weeks, sometimes a week more, sometimes a week less, depending on how busy we are. In peak season it is generally 5 weeks, sometimes 6 (and very occasionally 7 if we are really pushed). Whatever the delivery time is at the time of the design being approved, we will stick to it and for every working day that we are late in dispatching the kit, we will give a 2% discount.
We have been growing our production capacity at approximately 35% a year for the last 3 years, because we have not been able to make enough kit to meet demand, but we refuse to offer this as an excuse for late delivery. It is time that our industry stopped making empty promises about delivery times and started putting its money where its mouth is!
