Hi guys,
Matrix is still very much in business at the moment and I'll give you a potted history of what's been happening if you want. So yes there were two factories, one in the UK and one in the US. The US one moved from Ventura up to Idaho. Few different reasons, California costs being one, so Andy bought some land, set up and built a factory up there and also rented some factory space as well. The UK side unfortunately had to close. Basically Brexit and the Pandemic did a double whammy which meant we couldn't keep the UK side running. Robin who was looking after the UK factory is still in the same location and looks after and builds the PA amps that we used to do and runs it as a separate entity. We still do servicing repairs etc in the UK for the UK and EU customers. I'm still in the UK so more often than not when a lot of emails come through I'll be asleep because of the time difference but do get caught up but there is a bit of a lag sometimes. Apologies for that.
So the US side of things is still going. However as I've been explaining to a few customers via emails, we are like many others, at the mercy of the global issues that is causing a massive shortage of parts and supply chain issues. It started during the pandemic and hasn't resolved itself yet and in some cases has got worse. We're seeing backorders on parts now of up to a year! That is why a lot of stock is missing at the moment. We just cannot get a production run sorted as basically it would be half a circuit board only completed. Andy is trying his best on some amps to get ones and twos built up when he can scavenge parts. We luckily bought out pretty much all the remaining stock of MosFets (that we use) in the world and we do have parts that we'll keep for repairs that may arise.
The current stock we have is running low I'm sad to say. That's the 800 and 1000 1U amps.
The bright side is that Andy a couple of years ago decided to start doing his own anodising (as local companies left a bit to be desired) so he set his own facility up. During the pandemic when we could not get materials Andy then started doing work for other companies (most notably a large company involved in weapons accessories). This kept Matrix afloat and still does to a large extent so even when and if the amps run out, Matrix will not cease to be and shuffle off this mortal coil, but thankfully just go into hibernation for a bit, weather out the storms looming and hopefully come back when things clear up.
So that's the current situation. We're here and hope to be for a while. I'll still answer emails even if the amps run dry and we'll still be doing repairs and servicing. Fingers crossed things get better for everyone's sakes but as I say, we'll try and weather the storms even if we have to hibernate for a bit.
John
(and when I still thought I had money to burn)
