GW stores stocking Horus heresy

[fwf_cypher]

Yesterday I went into my local GW and asked about Horus heresy models (particularly the dreadnought) and was told they haven't been able to stock anything new in a while.

Anyone else had this problem or heard why?

The staff didn't seem to have an answer for me.

Anyone know anything?

[Ascanius]

I don't know anything for sure, but there have been repeated rumours around here that GW is suffering through production limitations caused by either resources in their factory, available power supply to the factory, or both - all of which amount to the notion that GW hasn't been able to produce quickly enough to meet demand.

 

If that rumour is true, restocking older products like the reboxed Betrayal at Calth models would understandably be less of a priority.

 

I worked briefly in a supply chain job, and my next two jobs after that had a somewhat similar engagement with supply chain issues, so I can say with some certainty that core products like the Dark Imperium starter and new products like Necromunda - and, more importantly, the newer products scheduled to come out in 2018 - would definitely take priority over the older stuff which we can guess doesn't sell as well as the new hotness.

 

(Plus, I kind of think the reboxed products only exist in the first place because they may have overproduced the board games themselves.)

 

If you absolutely want them right away, I'd guess the best bet would be to buy them from the webstore and have them delivered to your local GW. It doesn't count towards their sales as far as I know, but I'd hope it'd count towards some kind of engagement metric.

[N1SB]

Having the same problems at our store, EVEN with mail orders direct to Warhammer Stores.  I ordered Basilisks like 2 months in advance of Armies on Parade, it came in 1 week before, so it was a surprising 7 week lag time.  I believe (and I don't think it's a GW policy, so don't blame them) even mail orders usually comes about 1 month max.  The idea is they'll just tack your Mail Order to their monthly re-stock shipments to the store that they have to send anyway.

 

From my marketing experience, I absolutely 100% agree with my fellow Iron Hands brother above and he explained it best.  It was priority, which products get queued up.  Based on my personal experience I think they have trouble fulfilling even their regular orders, and it was just a matter of how they queued up their jobs.

 

From my finance background, I also noticed GW hasn't really invested in new factory assets.  They've been investing a lot in new retail stores, but not production.  They're also doing REALLY well this year.  They already paid out massive dividends to shareholders, which means they're planning on a blowout year.

 

Imagine like you're selling faster than you can produce.  It's unfortunate, I feel for you, I had to wait months for something I already ordered much less re-stock, but ultimately, consider this a Happy Problem.  The staff might not actually know what's up, not their fault, they're doing their jobs and chasing up, but it's bigger than them.

[Ascanius]

It's also one of those things - even if the local GW have been told, "We're out of stock of X and Y because of production problems," which is by no means guaranteed, in the vast majority of cases they wouldn't be permitted to tell customers what the reason is.

 

About the only thing I'd say is that we can be reasonably confident these products haven't been discontinued, if only because they'd probably have put them on "last chance to buy" if they were. So, while they may be unavailable for an indefinite period, at least they'll come back eventually.

 

(Me, I'd just buy the Forge World version unless you really hate resin.)

[Irbis]

From my finance background, I also noticed GW hasn't really invested in new factory assets.

 

Why would they when every single rumour and explanation we have (see this thread):

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/340618-gw-production-grinding-to-a-halt-due-to-lack-of-power/

 

Is that they can't physically run existing capability 24/7 due to local network not having enough power?

 

We heard they are doing something to address this but it's not expected to work before Q1/2 of 2018, so until then, spending money on new machines to have them sit in boxes wouldn't be wise...

[abraxus]

If you absolutely want them right away, I'd guess the best bet would be to buy them from the webstore and have them delivered to your local GW. It doesn't count towards their sales as far as I know, but I'd hope it'd count towards some kind of engagement metric.

 

If you order from the website while at the GW store (from their computer) the store does get credit for the sale.  If you order online form home and ship to the store, they do not.

[Marshal Rohr]

Why is Nottingham hurting for power? Like what is going on with their infrastructure?

[GalaxyChief]

Are the plastics produced in Nottingham?

 

I seem to recall from a while back that there was a fair amount of production being done in Spain. This may be dated info and they could very well have pulled eveything back to the UK around the same time they stopped production in the United States.

[Ishagu]

Nottingham is a big city. I'd need some proof in relations to this lack of power story.

 

Gw are basically smashing sales records month by month, the hobby is exploding and they are producing multiple new kits weekly across various systems.

 

It's probably just a backlog in conjunction with lack of shop space.

[m0nolith]

Space.

Need to make space for the new hotness which in time is going to be replaced by the newer hotness.

Rinse and repeat.

[OnboardG1]

Industrial power supply is a very different ball game from residential power supply. There are a lot of reactive loads in industrial areas that need beefy transformers and surge protection to stop them blowing the local distribution net's breakers. Given distribution in the UK is handled by a bunch of hoorays that range from dull but competent to outright profiteers it wouldn't surprise me if the local industrial park's substation is overdue for refurbishment and upgrade. I did check western power's site for any planned upgrades but section 2 of their development plan is available by application only.

[klisof]

Are the plastics produced in Nottingham?

 

I seem to recall from a while back that there was a fair amount of production being done in Spain. This may be dated info and they could very well have pulled eveything back to the UK around the same time they stopped production in the United States.

Most of the plastic kits say make in UK on the back, some like the new thermo plasma regulators say made in China and packed in the UK.

 

I don't recall seeing and kits for a long time that say anything different, it would probably say made in EU if it was from Spain

[Halandaar]

Are the plastics produced in Nottingham?

 

Today, almost everything is produced at Nottingham, with the exception of a handful of terrain kits done in China. I don't recall ever seeing anything from Spain, even when GW was operating production in the US.

 

Edit - For clarity, I'm talking about models, rather than cards/dice/codexes, which are China-made.

Edited December 4, 2017 by Halandaar

[RandomMarine]

Industrial power supply is a very different ball game from residential power supply. There are a lot of reactive loads in industrial areas that need beefy transformers and surge protection to stop them blowing the local distribution net's breakers. Given distribution in the UK is handled by a bunch of hoorays that range from dull but competent to outright profiteers it wouldn't surprise me if the local industrial park's substation is overdue for refurbishment and upgrade. I did check western power's site for any planned upgrades but section 2 of their development plan is available by application only.

Actually the grid is run from just outside of Wokingham Berkshire toured the control center when in school. But generally your right .

Edited December 4, 2017 by RandomMarine

[D3L]

With the new focus on Primaris the scaling down of production on the normal astartes kits was to be expected

[Irbis]

With the new focus on Primaris the scaling down of production on the normal astartes kits was to be expected

 

That would maybe have some ground to stand on if 80% of IG range when Codex IG dropped was somehow promoted to SM. During hottest period of that particular range demand you couldn't buy IG minis as almost all were out of stock, for months. Even now, close to 50% of IG infantry range remains out of stock. Does that strike you as voluntary thing on GW's part?

 

So please, don't repeat 4chan SM FUD, literally only models in GWs stock that weren't out of stock in last 6 months at some time or other were ones no one wanted...

[Marshal Rohr]

 

With the new focus on Primaris the scaling down of production on the normal astartes kits was to be expected

 

That would maybe have some ground to stand on if 80% of IG range when Codex IG dropped was somehow promoted to SM. During hottest period of that particular range demand you couldn't buy IG minis as almost all were out of stock, for months. Even now, close to 50% of IG infantry range remains out of stock. Does that strike you as voluntary thing on GW's part?

 

So please, don't repeat 4chan SM FUD, literally only models in GWs stock that weren't out of stock in last 6 months at some time or other were ones no one wanted...

 

 

Just because you're speculating from the opposite side doesn't make your speculation any more valid. So please, stop policing other people when your own :cuss is jacked up. 

[D3L]

Does that strike you as voluntary thing on GW's part?

 

So please, don't repeat 4chan SM FUD

First part, yes

 

Second part is too "leet speak" for my old head. Sorry squire, non comprende

[Praetor of Calth]

Nottingham is a big city. I'd need some proof in relations to this lack of power story.

 

 

 

Hahhaha, no it isn't. It's tiny. You can walk around the entire town centre in about half an hour. Sincerely, someone that lives there.  Nottingham is more of a really large town, that just so happened to meet the requirements to be considered a city.

[OnboardG1]

 

Industrial power supply is a very different ball game from residential power supply. There are a lot of reactive loads in industrial areas that need beefy transformers and surge protection to stop them blowing the local distribution net's breakers. Given distribution in the UK is handled by a bunch of hoorays that range from dull but competent to outright profiteers it wouldn't surprise me if the local industrial park's substation is overdue for refurbishment and upgrade. I did check western power's site for any planned upgrades but section 2 of their development plan is available by application only.

Actually the grid is run from just outside of Wokingham Berkshire toured the control center when in school. But generally your right .

 

 

That's why I said distribution and not transmission

 

Anything above 200KV or so is handled by the National Grid which is a weird holding company owned by all the regional suppliers. Anything under that is handled by the a specific company who bid on it back in the depths of the 90s after the electricity board was broken up. SSE run the Scottish distribution network North of the Highland line for instance (in practice everything except the big spinal interconnector between Beauley and Denny). That's one of the reasons why the quality of electricity supply is so wildly inconsistent between regions. A very few are reasonably good and try to innovate the best they can. Many others put as little as they can into the grid to maximise their profits. I've looked at the circuit data inside the SSE control room and I was amazed the guys there kept some of the insane mashup of 8 decades of expansion going at all.

Edited December 5, 2017 by OnboardG1

[Ascanius]

I know from Tom Scott's videos that the existence of one British national grid was an unauthorised experiment agreed upon by the engineers (or whatever the right term is) in charge of each of the regional networks.