Well another year is behind us. Been an interesting and challenging one for sure. Started out with rising oil which ultimately means rising plastic prices for us. There is a bit of a lag in pricing in the plastics industry. Seems most of the manufacturers buy the raw materials and resins several months in advance. Oil goes up-3 months later plastic goes up. Oil goes back down- well, maybe plastic goes back down???? Funny how that works. They (manufacturers of plastic sheet, tubs, etc) wait and see if the demand goes down. If not then the plastic, tubs, etc seem to mysteriously stay up in price. There has been signs of weakening so there may be hope. The overall slowdown of most manufacturing has started to show up in the plastic wholesale business so HOPEFULLY we will see the prices back off in the coming couple of months. A friend of mine is very tied into all of that as well as the plastic scrap sales to China. Even China has started to turn down recycled Acrylic and ABS that a few months ago they were buying buy the thousands of tons. While painful for all of us one way or another I think of this economic downturn as a bit of a correction for some things that have been spiralling out of control for the last few years. Hopefully we correct pretty quickly. We can blame any number of things (politicians, evil oil corporations, banks) but at the end of the day we as a whole have been driving this bubble for quite a few years. While fun, it can not last forever.
Remember the “Experts” that were telling us at the beginning of the summer that gas would be $7/gallon by Christmas? Where are they now?? Any guesses?? Probably still getting a nice paycheck from somebody. What a bunch of dopes. How do I get this job??
As always I have a few new things in the works. Seems I never tire. The Radiant Panels we introduced back in the beginning of 2008 have taken off better than I could have ever hoped for. Well, I secretly hoped…… The panels have stolen quite a bit of my R&D time and turned it into production time so a couple of new ideas have gone substantially slower than hoped. I have production on those pretty well stabilized now and we are keeping up pretty well. I have two other cage builders beside myself selling them and the feedback has been great as well as the sales.
The hide boxes! Wow, another one that I would never had guessed?? They have taken off very, very well. We got a bit overwhelmed on those early on as well. Couldn’t make enough. Got that one stabilized pretty well now also. Looks like there may be one more size added to fill in the gap between the Lg and the Xlg. They are the 4th and 5th slowest selling so that has not been a huge emergency. I will monitor requests and see if it warrants the cost of several molds. I believe we addressed 80% of the needs out there with the mini, small and medium sizes. One of the problems when you get past the Lg. in size is they get flimsy and I do not like that. Don’t need them where an elephant can walk on them BUT I want to keep the quality up. We had to go to a thicker plastic on the Xlgand the jump in cost is significant. The height of the box affects that the most so if I did go with an in-between size it would have to be closer in height to the Lg than the Xlg. Don’t know if that is worthwhile or not. Something to hash out in 2009.
Misting gear has done alright. A bit of a more specialized market and one I needed to learn more about. Couple of big personalities in it that are never happy it seems 
. Got all the right equipment but it takes a little while to learn what the customers needs are and adjust accordingly. Couple of things going into action in 2009-First is my buying capability in this field has now risen to a point where I can start to work on some of the pricing a bit. In my opinion the pricing on some of that gear has been a bit on the aggressive side. Not horrible but more than it really needs to be. My quantity buying capability is now about to the point where I can make a few adjustments. Plan is to go with the 8800 Aquatech pump with 3/8″ line across the board on the Advanced setup. Cost difference from the 1/4″ up to the 3/8″ is now negligible and it will give just about any conceivable user more pump than they will ever need. Some of the misting head assemblies will be dropping a few percent in price (that’salways nice when they don’t go up!). I am waiting to get the new 2009 component prices before I do that though, just to be on the safe side. Should know in a few days but with oil relaxing quite a bit I do not foresee a rise.
New for 2009 will be acrylic show displays. Been playing with a few designs for several months now and have finally tweaked it to where I like it. I will be taking pictures this afternoon and getting themon the website hopefully this evening or tomorrow latest. Moved away from the “standard” look and design a little. I have gone with the textured ABS for the floors and the back (instead if the more traditional clear back). Acrylic has gone up this year as much or more than any other material and this lowers the price a little. Besides, we were just looking through it and seeing the riser behind it anyhow. We are trying to look at the animal in it, not the riser behind it! Black acrylic between the compartments so animals can not see one another. They are stressed enough at a show as it is, why not give them a bit of security? This actually costs a little more than the clear but a good aesthetic trade off as well as easier on the animals. Obviously the fronts and sliding tops are clear. Used plenty of ventilation as well. That has been a problem on some other designs. Biggest change is the 3 compartment design is standard with optional dividers. We have experimented in real world situations quite a bit and found this to be great! Absolute maximum utility and versatility possible- 3, 4, 5 or 6 compartments per unit! Check them out when I get them on the site!
There will be a BIG (like really big!) project unleashed on the unsuspecting reptile world towards the middle of the year-Stay tuned!!
Bet you are tired of reading at this point so I will quit. Thanks again for all your patronage in 2008 and hope to see you all again in 2009!