We wanted to offer you a slightly different production update to close the year. This will be a global view of current productions and not a statue-by-statue detail.
We would like to take this opportunity to share our year 2023 with you.
An extreme year, in its ups and downs.
We could summarize Tsume's year 2023 to a Shonen : We fight, we bite the dust, we kneel down but we don't give up, we get up and come back stronger!
2023, a year full of difficulties….
First, the overall health of the market.
The global economy is doing badly and our sector is no exception.
We have encountered a lot of store closure or store in great difficulty.
So, you are currently seeing the return of quite a few references on Flash Sales.
These cancellations, up to 40% for certain references, being on statues already produced, we must manage their potential repatriation, as well as a massive storage cost.
Added to this are also the closures of several long-standing partners in Europe. Cinephil Store for example, for which we have guaranteed your pre-orders, which will be honored.
You have also noticed that our payment provider has changed since August. Tell yourself that in this difficult phase, our payment provider saw fit to decide to take 75% of incoming funds, yes, yes you are not dreaming...
An action that completely destroys the pre-order business model. This represents almost 2 million in cash, which you paid us, and which we cannot use... You understand that it is impossible for a company to work in these conditions. The change to payment initiation was therefore a saving grace, as transfers were not charged like credit card payments.
Two factories assigned to our production had to close their doors, at a stage which is not dramatic for us, but we are losing several months of engineering and molding...
Let's end the bad news with the latest, which will have repercussions in 2024: Maritime transport.
We learned this week that shipping companies are now changing the route of vessels on sea to avoid the Red Sea. The increase in drone attacks by rebel groups in Yemen has caused major companies to flee the area. Some of the container ships have already been diverted to bypass Africa from the south. With this modification of the route, the transit time is increased by 10-20 days and transport prices will start to rise again, added to the proximity of the Chinese New Year.We will keep you informed of developments in transport at this level.
All these reasons pushed us to the point where Tsume was in danger.
Managing our cash flow drastically and slowing down the production rate has been vital, to be able to better present to you all the good things that will come from it.
We will therefore have to review our production point one last time…
...But difficulties make you stronger!
Shipments were maintained despite these constraints throughout the year.
We received 31 containers this year and shipped more than 43,000 statues.
This will finally accelerate in 2024, with the aim of clearing everything by early 2025. What allows me to tell you this?
1- Some of the productions are ready and in the box. It remains to coordinate shipments and allocations, in order to best manage the flows that will arrive en masse. (look at everything that is planned on the listing, it’s impressive)
2- Other factories are on the starting blocks to speed up production.
3- As part of our funding is blocked, we are happy to announce that we have surrounded ourselves with a new financial partner who will allow us to support this acceleration worthy of the lightning of Konoha.
Tsume's final objective is close: Succeed in definitively updating us on productions!
Of course, you will continue to benefit from the 10% discount on new products in short supply if you have an undelivered order.
You have been the driving force behind our fight to get back on our feet.
We imbued ourselves with this energy to seek out the best in ourselves to succeed in passing this milestone and meeting the challenge.
Because we also managed some fights this year!
To be able to accelerate our old productions with all these constraints, it had to work economically.
A tour de force carried out in parallel with our other productions thanks to our factory in China. After Minato, Shiryu and Yamato, other Ikigai in short availability are arriving, until, hopefully, stock availability in the future!
As explained in the article dedicated to it, this system unfortunately cannot be carried over to our old current productions because it is this mode of operation which will now allow us to be able to both catch upthe past, but also no longer have to reproduce the same system in the future.
We are also proud of our return to basics in our communication. We had distanced ourselves from you in the past, probably to protect ourselves. But we realized that we had lost our soul in the process and the reason why we take on all these challenges.
Closer on the networks, chat with you via our Discord server (conferences lasting almost 3 hours...), and meet up with events like for the launch of Harley Quinn or our presence at TGS.As I already said above, you have no idea how much this boosts us! You are awesome !
But what made the most difference were the launches of our latest products and the reception you gave them.
We spoke with you to tell you that the success of Naruto MUB was important to us, and you did us the immense honor of shattering the glass ceiling.
The colossal work carried out on all the statues for 2023 was convincing and you supported Tsume, more than ever!
So thank you, thank you once again for being there for us, for all the artists who didn't give up, to all the people close to us, who supported us in different ways.
And thank you for ensuring that Tsume can once again renew itself and focus on its new objectives.
And 2024 ?
The coming year promises to be exciting. Indeed, always in our desire to question ourselves and innovate in our artistic proposals, a new range will arrive soon.
I would like to tell you more but you know we like to surprise!But believe me, we are going to offer you an original concept that we can’t wait to present to you…
Generally speaking, we will also reduce the number of “large pieces” that no longer meet current market demand. There will always be some, but 3 or 4 per year maximum. These parts also take a lot in production and we want to update ourselves as much as possible on current productions and be in correlation with the message cited above.
The majority of references presented in 2024 will therefore be short pre-orders!
We will also increase our presence at conventions and other events.
We want to spend time with you.
Thus, office visits for people who have ordered Naruto MUB and Seiya MUB will be organized.
In the meantime, we wish you an excellent holiday season.Enjoy these moments with your loved ones.
For our part, our customer and logistics services are closed until January 2nd, 2024. Any request sent between December 22th and January 1st will only be processed from January 2nd.
We'll see you in January, in great shape!Believe us, we're pumped up, we're coming with crazy stuff, ready to strike you like lightning!
Thank you for everything you have done for us!
It’s up to us to return the favor now!
SSJ Mode !
The Tsume Team
