2012: What an excitingly busy year!
2012 has proven to be another amazing year for U.S. Alpaca and the fiber pool. We had a record-breaking year in both products sold and total pounds of fiber collected and processed. The demand for our finished goods has increased well beyond our initial growth projections for 2012 and we've been running mad working to keep some of our newest product additions in stock and ready to ship. We also purchased and moved into our new facility in the middle of August, one of our busiest and certainly hottest months of the year.
2nd Floor of New Mill - September 2012
We are proud to report we only had one day where orders did not ship during the move. It was quite the trick to stay fully operational all while moving fiber, products, equipment, and all the other various items a textile business collects after being in one location for 15 years. One segment of our operation that did suffer was our fiber collection sorting turn around time. Normally it takes our sorters about 6 to 8 weeks to get a collection's fiber fully worked through and checked into everyone's account. By losing a month to moving and setting up in our new location, our sorters fell behind right at the same time as we ran collections in New York, Vermont, and Virginia. All this combined with the larger volumes of U.S. Alpaca fiber coming in to be processed created the perfect storm. Now that the brunt of the holiday season is behind us and we are settling into our new warehouse our sorters are working diligently to get all the fiber worked through and checked into everyone's accounts. We apologize for the delay and expect to be through all of the fiber collected at the end of 2012 in the next 4 to 6 weeks.
Tim painting 2nd Floor - December 2012
Putting it all back together - January 2013
The repercussions of outsourcing high quality manufacturing jobs has come back to roost here in the United States in the form of record setting unemployment and underemployment. This helped spur a volatile year for the alpaca industry and U.S. economy as a whole. We witnessed some going out of business animal auctions and several fiber-related businesses close their doors. On the flip side, these hardships have caused U.S. Citizens of all ages to ask themselves how we got here and what we can collectively do to start righting these wrongs. One of the positive movements to come from this reflection is to increase demand for U.S. based goods. By shifting purchases to domestically manufactured goods and keeping money in our local economies, we have begun to right the wrongs of 40+ years of outsourcing textile-manufacturing jobs.
Several of our manufacturing partners are reporting increased demand for their services across the board and are investing back into their businesses. They are re-tooling their equipment, hiring and training new employees, and running extra shifts to stay a head of the growing demand for U.S. produced items. This in turn will spur new innovation, higher quality, and more avenues for our precious U.S. alpaca fiber in the years to come. Like any paradigm shift, the transition will be slow, but it's important to acknowledge that things are indeed moving in the correct direction on the U.S. textile front.
We consider ourselves so fortunate to be running a U.S. alpaca fiber business during this resurgence in the U.S. manufacturing base. As the U.S. alpaca industry matures and more fiber grown in this country finds it's way into the many avenues now available to the farmer, alpaca fiber's general awareness will continue to grow throughout the country and the rest of the world. As the knowledge of this amazing natural fiber and the charming animals that produce it increases, so does the demand for the finished goods. This enriches all involved with the fiber side of the U.S. Alpaca industry. We look forward to riding our momentum from 2012 into 2013 and do our part in bringing raw fiber off the animal into finished goods ready to sell to the general public.
Thank you all for an amazing 2012. Thank you for embracing the fiber side of your business. Thank you for your hard work and support. We look forward to continuing to grow and mature with you along with the U.S. Alpaca industry as a whole in years ahead.
Chris and Shelley Riley
+ the entire NEAFP team
Several of our manufacturing partners are reporting increased demand for their services across the board and are investing back into their businesses. They are re-tooling their equipment, hiring and training new employees, and running extra shifts to stay a head of the growing demand for U.S. produced items. This in turn will spur new innovation, higher quality, and more avenues for our precious U.S. alpaca fiber in the years to come. Like any paradigm shift, the transition will be slow, but it's important to acknowledge that things are indeed moving in the correct direction on the U.S. textile front.
We consider ourselves so fortunate to be running a U.S. alpaca fiber business during this resurgence in the U.S. manufacturing base. As the U.S. alpaca industry matures and more fiber grown in this country finds it's way into the many avenues now available to the farmer, alpaca fiber's general awareness will continue to grow throughout the country and the rest of the world. As the knowledge of this amazing natural fiber and the charming animals that produce it increases, so does the demand for the finished goods. This enriches all involved with the fiber side of the U.S. Alpaca industry. We look forward to riding our momentum from 2012 into 2013 and do our part in bringing raw fiber off the animal into finished goods ready to sell to the general public.
Thank you all for an amazing 2012. Thank you for embracing the fiber side of your business. Thank you for your hard work and support. We look forward to continuing to grow and mature with you along with the U.S. Alpaca industry as a whole in years ahead.
Chris and Shelley Riley
+ the entire NEAFP team
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