Latest News Letter 11/07/2008

Hi Everyone,

Below is a copy of a letter we have either posted or emailed to our customers. Hopefully everyone will have received it by now or should receive it in the next day or two.



Dear

It’s just over a month since we last contacted you. Many, who have Internet access, will already know the good news. This letter is really to make sure that everyone is ‘in the loop’ and knows what’s happening.

We are pleased to announce that our bid for the Intellectual Property Rights and the Stock previously owned by Modelworks has been accepted by the Administrators.

We have also now agreed with the ex-chairman of Modelworks, Mr R Jones, a purchase price for some of the cnc machines and many other items of capital equipment.

Additionally, we have been able to agree a short term rental agreement with him on some of the old Modelworks factory. It is fairly short term because he still wants to sell the building. It will at least allow us to establish our new venture without having some significant start up costs associated with machine re-location and installation.

We are still working on many ‘housekeeping’ issues associated with starting a new business. We anticipate that we will be in a position to re-start production in early August.

Our initial priorities will be:

Foden

Completion of Foden Crankshafts.
Machining of Cylinder Blocks.
Re-establishing supply of Gears & Sprockets & Waterpump castings.
Placing of order for remaining Boilers.

2” Burrell

Re-commencing Boiler Production
Production of Kit 16

4” Burrell

Re-establishing supply of Kit 10 components, and Cylinder Block casting.
Ordering of materials ready for Boiler construction.

Likamobile

Re-establishing supply of wheel hubs. Arranging assembly of wheels.



Production

We intend to publish regular updates about production progress on our new website.
www.steamtractionworld.co.uk. Details will found in the Forum section, specific to each design. If you don’t have direct access yourself, then you may be able to find a friend or relative that can keep an eye on it for you.

Our initial level of production is rather unknown at the moment. We will be dealing with far fewer designs but we will also have far fewer resources. We have established, what we hope, is a conservative production plan which was incorporated into our financial predictions. Once we gather some experience, we will commit to specific production and despatch dates.

Prices

We generally want to keep the majority of kit prices as they were. This is despite some hefty increases recently in the price of steel and iron and especially copper and silver solder.

The one area that we know will be hard felt, will be the boilers, regardless whether you’re building a 2” or 4” Burrell, or a Foden we will have no option but to charge a realistic price. Once we’ve gathered more information about material costs, we will write to inform you of any impact.

Payment

We are working on establishing a card payment facility, but this may well be a number of weeks away. In the mean time, a bank transfer, or a cheque made payable to ‘Steam Traction World’ would be acceptable. As items become ready for despatch, you will be contacted to arrange payment.

Contact

We will be at the old Modelworks factory, at least for the time being. The postal address is:

Steam Traction World
3 Riley Close
Daventry
Northants
NN11 8QT

The telephones were re-connected from Monday 7th July.
You can call us on 01327 301030.
You can email us at sales@steamtractionworld.co.uk

Yours faithfully,

Dean & Steve