Dear Srajan, I just read your longer Raven feature and see that your original hunch about Pat's current business model was spot on. If he does all the business he can handle and already operates on tighter margins than usual, it really makes no sense to do a global review on them. But I certainly appreciate your effort and wanted to say thanks. Cheers. Fred
You're welcome. Apparently the tight margins mean a pending price increase to $13K/pr so if the Raven looks at you sharpish, picking up a pair at the current ~$10K price would make a lot of sense. You'd just have to do it on the strength of Pat's prior work and his assessment of this model, not any reviews. Or as Pat put it about 2025 pricing compared to 5 years ago: "Things have changed. We've seen about a 30% runup in costs since 2020. Everything from MDF to drivers to insurance to heating oil to freight. Facts of life but one does need to ramp up one's whole life to stay abreast. Coming out of the pandemic, the supply chain was such a darn mess, like rudderless, that we had no choice but inventory all kinds of things that normally ran JIT, increasing costs by diverting working capital away from more productive uses. So everything notched up and stuck there. It's hard while it's happening but you have to get used to it." Srajan
