Iron Duke Miniatures: I'm sorry to have to announce that I'm departing the toy making business and closing down IDM. Bear with me while I explain why, and I'm sure you'll be able to see that I have no other choice. I Started IDM in 2015, nine years ago, when the cost of materials, metal primarily, was easily half what it was a couple of months ago. That left room enough to sell my goods through a distributor, namely my chums at Empress Miniatures. The margin however was always destined to be narrower in that kind of business model than for a company that did all its own retail in-house. Since we started costs have edged ever upwards and the margin has been narrowing all the while. About six to eight weeks ago we were hit amidships by a 25% increase in the cost of metal.
There was some hope that it might be a temporary hike, but frankly I can sense no immediate prospect of a downwards turn. The changed situation left me with three options. To continue as before would have necessitated a significant price hike to you, the customer, when you purchased IDM goodies from Empress. Given an already relatively low volume of sales in what is very obviously a niche field, that was not a tenable road to go down. The second option was to take over retail myself, which, by cutting out Empress as the distributor, would have left a margin sufficient to continue. However, I have lots of other time consuming things to do, in researching and writing books, giving lectures and what-not, and could not afford to devote myself to processing orders and packing parcels on a daily basis. Not an attractive option. The third and final option was to cut myself out of the picture and that is what I decided in the end to do. The silver lining to the cloud is that I've passed all my moulds over to Empress, so that you will still be able to buy everything I've manufactured up to this point. Crucially, from the customer's point of view, as we sit here today, the goods will be sold at the same price as formerly. In some ways this news is not really news at all.
In essence everything that is an Iron Duke Miniature today, will become an Empress Miniatures tomorrow. Obviously the time might come when Empress are compelled to put their prices up....a 25% increase in the cost of metal is no laughing matter, so we can only keep hoping for that downward turn to transpire. Of course the bad news is that I will not be able to achieve everything that I had hoped to achieve. I can make no promises in respect of future development of the ranges. That will be Empress's business now. I'll leave the IDM website intact for a short while, in order that anybody who wants to copy any of the uniform/historical notes to be found there has the opportunity to do so. But I do emphasize that it will be a short while only.
I've managed to make some nice toys over the past nine years, including the Indian Mutiny range, which preceded the present African and Indian ranges and which was sold to Empress at an earlier point in time. Of course the key players in IDM accomplishing what it has were the fine sculptors that turned to for me. I'd like to express my gratitude to them all and also articulate my admiration for their astonishing skillsets. The lead sculptor of course was the remarkably talented Paul Hicks, who continues to do wonders for other companies. No less important roles were played by e-Bob, Tony Boustead, Niels Rullkotter and John Hart. Thank you chaps. Nor must I forget to express my gratitude to Iain McDonald, the proprietor of 'Flags of War', who made all the IDM flagsheets for me. They too will now go across to become Empress products.
That's about it. I'm sorry to have to jump and pull the ripcord, a year or two earlier than I had originally intended, but 'c'est la guerre' as they say. I'm sure you will understand the necessity that compels me to call it a day. I hope you continue to derive great table top success with the miniatures I've managed to bring to the marketplace. Thanks to all of you who bought my toys or even just admired them from a distance. It was a blast while it lasted. With my very best wishes to all, Mike.
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