COVID-19 Update

UPDATE: 15th June 2021 - As the UK slowly emerges from an extended lockdown and easing of restrictions, we are seeing fewer and fewer postal delays in the UK and into Europe, although the additional border checks are still causing some issues and this is likely to continue into the future.

Post Office visits are normally 2-3 times per week now to maximise deliveries in one go, and minimise wait times.  As many items still require manufacture before they can be sent, most orders will normally take a couple of days to despatch anyway.

UPDATE: 5th January 2021 - The UK government yesterday announced a third full lockdown in England - we are however fully open and still taking orders.  To comply with the new laws we will be limiting visits to the Post Office to 1 or 2 visits per week, which may mean there is a slightly longer delay in dispatching your order, but it should be no more than 2-3 days extra.

Given the continued reliance on the postal system you should also expect some additional delays after your item has dispatched.  Most packages appear to be arriving as normal or with a very small delay, but some are delayed by a week or more.  If you have any concerns please get in touch.

International orders may also be subject to further delays depending on the pandemic situation in your particular country.  There is also some disruption and additional processing for EU orders due to the Brexit transition.

We appreciate your patience and support during this difficult period.

UPDATE: 20th May 2020 - to limit out own risk we are posting orders out on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday only.  Please bear this in mind when placing your order - there may be a slight delay before dispatch.

Royal Mail delays - we have been experiencing some longer-than-usual postal delays from Royal Mail, however most 1st Class deliveries within the UK are arriving within 2-3 working days.  As we are unable to claim back costs for late deliveries, we are asking customers to wait up to 10 working days from dispatch for their orders to arrive, so that we can initiate a claim with Royal Mail.  We know it's frustrating to wait longer for your order and luckily this only affects a small minority of orders.  We appreciate your co-operation at this time.

UPDATE: 23rd March 2020 - following the near-lockdown situation the UK now finds itself in, we will be operating a less regular service.  For now, our Post Offices will still remain open but we will be frequenting then less often.  We'll try to buy online postage and use post boxes where possible.  This means that some larger order will be subject to longer-than-normal delays until we are able to get to a Post Office to arrange delivers.  Rest assured we will do whatever we can to get orders out as soon as possible, but just ask for a little more patience.  We have removed our urgent delivery options (UK Special Delivery) as we can no longer offer these services reliably.

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We are still operating as normally as possible under these rapidly-changing circumstances, and are well-stocked with materials to fulfill most if not all orders in good time.  There do not appear to be any supply chain issues at the moment so getting additional material in as necessary is also not an issue at the present time.

However, we are experiencing issues with initial delivery fulfillment - local Post Offices are seeing closures as they do not have the staff to cover those currently in self-imposed isolation.  This makes it challenging to actually get orders sent out in the first instance no matter how rapidly we make them.

The other issue is with international deliveries.  Countries with tighter lock-down situations (such as Span and Italy) will almost certainly be subject longer than normal postage delays as getting post into these countries is held up.  We ask for some extra patience whilst waiting for your orders to arrive.  Higher-value orders are usually sent via a tracked service so please use your supplied tracking information to monitor the progress of your delivery.

Finally, we'd like to thank all our customers for their ongoing support and wish you all the very best for the next several weeks.  We know it's an extremely challenging time for everyone.  Stay safe!