HBD has been producing items in
China for over 25 years. Combined with our US-design and manufacturing, this
has given HBD enormous flexibility.
The current environment is obviously challenging and stressful. Much is beyond
our control. However, by monitoring both Chinese and expatriate blogs and
talking daily to our Chinese partners, we have worked hard to minimize the
coronavirus impact.
Specifically, we have done the following:
- HBD, as always, increased its shipments before the Lunar New Year. We received four containers in February.
- HBD has moved some production to Taiwan.
- HBD has moved production of less labor-intensive items back to our US factory.
- HBD was able to ramp up production oversees quickly as our manufacturing partners were some of the first to resume production after the quarantine period.
We have most items in stock, and we expect
shipments to resume from oversees in the next week. The size of our inventory plus
our US capacity enables us to minimize disruptions to our supply chain.
We have one import request of our valued customers. In order to continue
as smoothly as possible, and to mitigate further disruptions from the
coronavirus, we ask that you give us an idea of your needs as far in advance as
you are able. The more we know and are able to plan, the greater our chance to
satisfy your needs without disruption.
What lessons have we learned? It’s still too early to tell. We’ll leave the
health aspects to the experts. We suspect, though, it may be years before they
really know the coronavirus’s seriousness, characteristics, and whether it is
seasonal.
One important thing we think we HAVE learned: China is not nearly a first-world
country, and much of the disease’s severity stems from, not despite, China’s
form of government. Corruption, secrecy, lack of basic preparedness, and
buck-passing have characterized the Chinese response. Their authoritarian form
of government encourages these responses.
Democracy is often messy. In the end, though, it gets the best results.
Thanks for your loyal support. We will keep you posted as we have more
information to share.