CAS Hanwei Shuts Down

[Allan Senefelder]

Just saw this on myarmour.com http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=25202&sid=4c369e0f6e9296ff5ac9f138205d5ea4
Not the first or the last of this you'll see as the economy continues to crap out.

[Sir Patrick]

Are GDBF and CAS Hanwei the same thing?  I ask b/c the maille I want on Kult of Athena is from GDBF/CAS.

[Sir Ulrich]

Now where the hell am I gonna get a new Norman sword... I ain't going for Albion thats too out of my price range. Now I'm angry, everyones shutting down and everything else is out of my price range...

[Sir Wolf]

sigh

[Sir Brian]

Bummer! I'm really sorry I didn't buy another Tinker practice longsword last year when they dropped the price to $112! 

[Sir Edward]

Well, crap! I'll keep my eyes open for an announcement from them, since I'm still listed with them as a dealer. This is hugely disappointing, and doesn't bode well for this industry as a whole.

CAS/Hanwei has been a great middle-ground option, with some wonderful improvements in the last couple of years, including training blunts and the like.

Are GDBF and CAS Hanwei the same thing?  I ask b/c the maille I want on Kult of Athena is from GDBF/CAS.

GDFB is actually another company based out of the UK, and CAS/Hanwei was their US distributor. So the GDFB stuff will likely still be available, but it may involve overseas shipping, unless they get another distributor here. I'd love to see KoA become that distributor if CAS tanks.

I'm still waiting on riveted rings from KoA as well. If they can never get them, I'll be irritated since I already bought the tool, and the links simply never restocked.

Now where the hell am I gonna get a new Norman sword... I ain't going for Albion thats too out of my price range. Now I'm angry, everyones shutting down and everything else is out of my price range...

Well, truthfully, I'm worried about Albion as well. They've been quiet about it, but I suspect their sales are hurting too. And they've fallen way behind this past year.

What I'm worried about is that this explosion of inexpensive and widely available gear these last few years may have been an anomaly in the long-run. The market may not be able to support it. This sort of "renaissance" of armor and arms revival may not continue the way we've gotten used to.

[Sir William]

Now where the hell am I gonna get a new Norman sword... I ain't going for Albion thats too out of my price range. Now I'm angry, everyones shutting down and everything else is out of my price range...

Ulrich, go on KoA and see if they have any still in stock; I'd get it now while the iron's hot.  This is sad, sad news...but not unexpected.

I'm with Sir Edward, I am hoping our higher end retailers are able to weather the storm...but no one's spending as much as they used to because the future seems so uncertain, what with the still declining job and housing markets.

[Allan Senefelder]

What I'm worried about is that this explosion of inexpensive and widely available gear these last few years may have been an anomaly in the long-run. The market may not be able to support it.

To be honest Ed what they are is what alot of people can afford after 5 years of being economically strangled. Its not that people don't still want the nicer high end stuff, they simply put no longer have the money. 5 years of going backwards cannot possibly yield a positive. By way of example, 4 years ago The Mercenarys Tailor made $65,000, and had one full and three part time employees. I just got my 1099 for last year from the company that I had used to process credit cards. They processed $28,300 last year. With Paypal payments and checks sent in the total for last year was just under $34,000 or just about half of what we made 4 years ago. Everybody still wanted the goods when we closed, but no one has any money left now.

If the mid and low end suppliers are now taking the hit, I have no idea where you'll be getting your stuff in a few years. Best I can tell you is, I know everyones broke but just like when I was doing the industry visibility giveaways, support your makers today so they can be there for you tommorow.

[Sir Edward]

It's definitely a scary trend.

On some of the threads out there about CAS/Hanwei, it's sounding like they may just be shutting down for the winter, and then will resume with higher prices. We'll see how it goes.

[Sir Edward]

They just responded on myArmoury:

I just posted this to our FB page and working on getting it to the website as well;

We have been advised by Hanwei that they were unable to complete their new factory building before winter weather halted construction, and as a result they have stopped production until April. In addition factory prices will increase once production resumes. We believe that the increases are partly due to sharply increased labor and material costs in China but have been given no information beyond this. This temporary disruption in product from Hanwei will have no affect on our GDFB or Rawlings polymer sparring sword lines. Thanks from everyone at CAS Hanwei for your continued support, we'll do our best to keep everyone up to date as we get further information from Hanwei!

Let me know if you have any questions.

[Sir William]

Ulrich, found this for you here:  http://www.by-the-sword.com/acatalog/Tinker_Norman_Sword_Sharp_29-SH2426.html

Go get'm, Brother.

[Ian]

Well, truthfully, I'm worried about Albion as well. They've been quiet about it, but I suspect their sales are hurting too. And they've fallen way behind this past year.

Do you have any idea how Albion and Albion Europe are structured?  I often go to the Europe site because it's frankly alot better, it has more photos, more information about the swords etc... but what I notice is that Albion Europe has a TON of swords in stock at all times. I'm just guessing they are having supplier issues here that they might not be feeling iEurope right now, but I always assumed the two companies are owned by a common entity.  But yeah, still waiting for the sword I ordered in September, last update had an ETA of shortly after the first of the year, but it's Feb now so...

[Sir Edward]

You know, I've never been clear on how it's structured. I've been guessing that they treated it like a franchise, in that the European shop is separately owned, but paid to have access to their designs and methods. It's just a guess though.

Albion over here definitely had some supply issues this past year. They couldn't get their steel for the training blunts for most of the year. Now, they had issues getting their sharps rolling. I just asked them again about the sword I ordered in September, and when they replied yesterday, they said the steel had just come in that day. Now they have to catch up on doing the CNC blanks.

That does make things difficult-- when the materials arrive months late.

[Sir William]

At least we're understanding enough to realize the issues of supply and demand w/regard to raw materials...hopefully, all of their customers do, too.

[Thorsteinn]

Well this recession has cost me about $75k personally and I'm just one man.