General news / queues / supply chain issues

November 2024 update:

We are in the middle of back-to-school season with a better in-stock status than we've had for years, particularly for choral folders, as we've raised capacity and manufactured up to 10,000 folders/month over the summer. 

Thank you for your patience and brand loyalty, and we will keep your trust with the quality craftsmanship we put into your long-lasting folders.

As we cycle through building many styles of folder, the last-made ones may become temporarily out of stock. My strong recommendation for those who don't want to wait, and for best value, is to buy any "Grade A, factory second" folders you can see, described in our 'Discounted Factory Seconds'  section, even for an entire choir order, because we're pretty ruthless with quality control, and their 'non-conforming' issues range from negligible...to undetectable by many, in addition to the significant 25% discount. There is a total of *thousands* available;  and can ship immediately. Our production target for 2024 is over 100,000 folders and even a small percentage of non-confirming folders that don't pass as 'perfect', add up.

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General news and current plans:
The past couple years have been incredible in terms of our primary component suppliers going bankrupt or closing business for various reasons.

We have responded to this supply chain chaos by taking on all manufacturing functions of former key suppliers and are expanding our staff by more than double. We have set up significant credit lines and invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into equipment and supplies purchases as we have set up a new bindery division. 

And bought other folder manufacturers. NEWS: last year we purchased remaining assets of Deer River Folio Co., and their machinery and an array of incomplete folios has arrived to a warehouse across the street. Much of their machinery, sadly, is worn out and in need of vastly more extensive repair than expected. Slowly, we'll add their popular folders into the mix as we prioritize our own existing designs and ratchet up our production to a higher monthly capacity.

All this isn't done overnight, and demand is sometimes higher than what we can supply, until we are smoothly operating and have found the time to go through and fix or toss everything received from DRF.

Know that we wouldn't invest this much, nor put in insane weekly hours to roll out these projects, unless we believed that it would all work out in the end, with benefits of vertical integration and eventual better control of quality, in-house, here. We kindly ask for your understanding and patience.

November 2024 planning will see completion of batches of :

• 4000 Choir RingBinders (1") with Two Expanding Pockets
• 3000 Choir RingBinders (1").
• more Band and Orchestra folders and a mix of Standard, Deluxe, and Deluxe Classroom Choral Folders.
• Note that we have significant numbers of red folders (new) available, about  in choir and band sizes, and will finish some other incomplete builds from Deer River Folio, making them ready to purchase.  Get them while they last!

-Ian Bullen