It was with a certain amount of sadness that I heard the news that Avocet had been placed in the hands of the administrators.

Whilst they’ve been fierce competitors of ours over the years, they have also at times been worthy adversaries and I think the rivalry which existed between us probably helped to stimulate a certain amount of innovation in terms of product development and service. 

Since the news broke earlier – and, if I’m honest, for a good few weeks beforehand - we’ve been getting lots of calls from fabricators urgently seeking to obtain stock to keep their production levels flowing.

The difficulties Avocet now face are after all a stark illustration of what I’ve been saying in this blog and in the press for a couple of years – fabricators are at the mercy of their supply chain and, if they don’t choose suppliers who are secure and well resourced, then they are extremely vulnerable if any part of that supply chain falters.

I don’t take any satisfaction from being proved right on that but I do think perhaps it should make everyone within the market scrutinise the stability of their supply partners a bit more closely from now on.

As you would expect, in terms of supply, our overriding priority has always been and remains our existing customers.  As I wrote in my last post, we invested in an additional 38% of stock to ensure that we could maintain supplies throughout the difficult period of the Chinese New Year when most factories in China shut down.

However, because we were aware of the difficulties facing Avocet some months ago, we were also able to order additional stocks of standard products such as door hinges, espag handles, friction stays and cylinders which we can now make available to help Avocet customers facing urgent supply problems.

These products are all in stock at Daventry and are available with guaranteed next day delivery so if need help with fulfilling orders – either in the short or long term - please get in touch.

Richard