The pandemic has affected us all for more than a year now. With the start of a new boating season, it is important for us to ke.ep our customers informed of how the pandemic is affecting our industry and our operations. Unfortunately, our deliveries of boats and spare parts is strongly affected by the pandemic. We are working as hard as we can to minimise delays, but the challenges we are facing are mainly out of our control.
In our minds, full transparency for our customers is the only right choice in such a situation, and we want to inform you of the challenges that have ca used a delay in our deliveries:
Our production team is divided into cohorts of maximum eight persons, and this has proven extremely important in managing infections.
In the autumn of 2020 and winter and spring of 2021, there have been several outbreaks of COVID-19 among our production staff, so that several of these eight-person cohorts have had to go into quarantine and isolation. In addition, we have had a general ly high level of sick leave mainly due to long periods when kindergartens and schools have been closed and parents/guardians have had to stay home from work.
We have also experienced and continue to experience major cha I lenges with deliveries of and access to the materials required for boat production. Some of these challenges are specific to the boat industry, while others are more global, such as the lack of containers in Asia and a global shortage of semiconductors. These small chips are used in a wide range of products, from household goods and appliances, to cars, outboard engines and boats.
On top of this, we were also affected by the accident when the Ever Given container ship ran aground in the Suez Canal. This ship is still in arrest, and is carrying a significant num ber of containers with components and outboard engines for Askeladden boats.
What does this mean for our customers?
All these problems in total have resulted in the accumulation of a substantial delay in deliveries of our boats, which started in the late autumn of 2020 and remains today.
The delay in our deliveries is currently between three and six weeks depending on the model, and this is a considerable delay now at the start of the boating sea son.
Askeladden recently updated its delivery terms for all boats that have not yet been de livered, up to the summer holidays.
Contact your local Askeladden dealer for updated delivery status for your boat!
We are truly sorry!
All of us at Askeladden are passionate about boats and boating. Our goal is to provide customers with wonderful days out on the water. Not being able to achieve this goal in time and with no way of rectifying the situation is a heavy burden to bear for us. We are aware that delayed delivery of boats to customers may be tolerated or accepted in January, February or March. This is not the high season, and most customers spend little time on the water.
The fact that aur deliveries are delayed in May, June and July is an entirely different problem. Not receiving delivery of your new boat once the sea son has started is awful for aur customers and a crisis for us as boat manufacturer – and as boat lovers. We are genuinely sorry this situation has arisen.
We sincerely apologise for the delay in deliveries to all those waiting to receive an Askeladden boat, which you most probably ordered in plenty of time befare the season started. We understand that you must feel frustrated, and we share these feelings.
What to expect?
The good news is that all our customers will receive their Askeladden boats this summer, although some of you will experience delays of many weeks.
One fact that might make the situation easier to bear is that all customers who have purchased a boat this year have done so at very good prices. The shortage of materials for boat production prompted prices to spiral downwards, and a significant increase in the prices for boats and outboard engines is expected soon and leading up to next summer.
We hope you all have a wonderful summer on the water,
