Stay in the loop - June 2020

It’s been a while since my last update primarily due to the great number of challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic. I want to take this opportunity to update you on what’s happening at Koi Wholesale.

April was a challenging month because of the uncertainty that we all faced. What is typically the biggest month in the water gardening calendar looked like it could be a total disaster. For us and many companies that we deal with sales were reported to be significantly down on the previous year but by the end of the month consumer interest seemed to be on the rise.

Throughout February I had purchased a record amount of stock based on the sales data that I had from the previous year. As the Covid-19 pandemic was beginning to unravel making decisions about further stock purchases was difficult. At the time airlines were still operating and I did plan another shipment which was due to arrive in late April. This would have further bolstered our stocks incase of troubles shipping later on. As that shipment drew closer however the airline industry had pretty much shut down and the shipment was cancelled. Trying to acquire airspace then became a serious challenge.

During the last week of April there was a big turn around in sales which continued with great intensity into May. At the rate koi were selling I knew it wouldn’t be long before stock levels would become a major issue and there were still no signs of anything coming out of Japan.

As things stand today we have almost completely sold out and only have a few mixes of koi still available. I am pleased to say that last week we did get a significant shipment of new Japanese koi into the facility which are now isolated in quarantine. Our sales in May were phenomenal with growth of 24% on the previous year. Many of our customers were also reporting unprecedented demand.

So you probably want to know what will be happening this month and beyond so here is quick summary;

A limited number of high quality individual tosai have been set aside to be photographed and listed on the website.
New tosai mixes from Marushin and Shinoda are being prepared for release this week.
The new shipment will be released from quarantine on 22/06/20.
A new shipment is being organised to arrive sometime towards the end of this month.

I also want to announce that we are currently NOT opening any new accounts. There has been multiple new enquires each week but at this moment we have to prioritise our existing customers.

Recent events have been something that many of us will never experience again in our lifetimes. From a business perspective it has brought new challenges that I, along with many others have been working hard to overcome. With the good weather and easing of lockdown restrictions I am optimistic at what can be achieved in the second half of the year.

Thanks for reading.
Regards, Ricky.

Blog