November 2021 Newsletter

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Another day and another day of emails notifying us of price increases, delays and shortages. Even the manufacturer of our beloved Curry-Hook went out of business this year. Don’t worry – we found an alternative!

2021 has been a tough year for anyone in business and doesn’t appear to be getting any easier. The price of steel and plastic polymer continues to rise month-on-month and even the smallest fastener or cardboard box gets harder to find on anyone’s shelves as we continue to weather the Brexit/Covid (shit) storm.

All of the above inevitably means (you know what’s coming, don’t you?) that prices of some of our products have had to increase and other products will see increases in the New Year when suppliers implement new pricing.

If you’re looking at upgrading the audio system in your Defender, be aware that the car-audio industry is struggling with supply of product right now. Kenwood/JVC has ZERO stock in The UK or The EU and won’t receive any fresh stock until Spring of 2022. This is a result of the worldwide chip shortage that goes into capacitive ‘touch’ screens and is affecting every other audio manufacturer. Our advice would be if you see a head-unit you like, buy it now, but check the seller physically has it in stock.

Carling Technologies is struggling with supply and we’re now seeing shortages of some stock items. We’re used to Carling’s standard lead times of 10-12 weeks but we’re seeing delivery dates now being pushed even further out.

Now some good news!

We’ve just received a bulk shipment of Moto-Lita stock steering wheels and bosses. Moto-Lita has struggled with manufacturing since the start of the global pandemic, not helped by start of Covid coinciding with a company relocation. Moto-Lita is currently quoting 12-week lead times on orders so this shipment will be the last one we receive in 2021. Our Moto-Lita stock ALWAYS sells out at Christmas so if you’re planning on receiving/buying a wheel for Christmas, then our advice is to buy early to avoid missing out.

New product development has been difficult during the last couple of years when just arranging a face-to-face meeting was impossible for so long. Nevertheless, we’re just starting to see some new product projects come to fruition.

We were lucky enough to take delivery of our new Defender in July, just before the latest round of new Defender shortages. It’s not broken down yet, so fingers crossed….You’ll start to see some new Defender products landing our website soon. The most significant new product is our rear door table for the 2020 Defender. It’s not on the website yet, thanks to (inevitably!) delays with material supply, but if you’re wondering whether to fix a generic Jeep table to the rear door of your Defender, then we recommend you hang on for the MUD table solution. Drop us an email to be the first to know when the first batch has landed.As the world gradually gets back to some form of normal and we can finally think about travel plans, you might be looking at planning an extended trip with your Land Rover. Our brand ambassador’s social media pages are a great place to spend some time and are sure to provide plenty of inspiration for vehicle builds and destinations.