You’re missing the point.
The issue isn’t their turn around. I’m fully aware of how long this kind of product can take to manufacture and what kinds of challenges that are inherent in the supply chain. (Disclosure: I work for the biggest consumer goods company in the world, and was in the dietary supplements division prior to my current assignment.)
The problem they have, and that they will continue to have if they don’t fix their system, is that they’re making promises they can’t keep.
You were order number 9900 on the 18th, or thereabouts, yes? And yours was 10 days late. That’s okay. That happens from time to time. Every company has issues, especially at startup, and it seems the start of the issue was around the 21st.
The problem lies in the fact that I was 14075 on October 4th (a day after yours arrived from being late) and, at the time of my order, it claimed on the site that it would be shipped same day and would arrive within 2-3 business days. Now, it says on the site: “Due to increased demand, please allow an additional 5-10 business days for your order to arrive. Thank you for your understanding.”, when we’re all well aware, given we’ve placed our orders and are waiting, that the wait-times are up to twice that.
The problem, from a business standpoint, is that they’re misrepresenting themselves and are going to cost themselves a lot more in the long run than if they just simply posted the truth up front. I want this to be successful. Soylent makes me nauseated. The worst thing Huel can do is ignore the feedback they’re getting.
My guess, and it is simply a guess, as I do not work for Huel, but am familiar with this industry, is that they are having a contract manufacturer make it here in the United States, as Huel is UK based, and there was a quality issue with a batch. Now, that might sound like a bad thing, but, in reality, it’s probably a good sign that they’re out of stock because they scrapped the off-quality material. Now they’re short because they had to order additional raw material in, expedited, have to do the quality tests on the raws (because their supply chain is too new to be on reduced testing), which includes microbiological testing, which can take 7 calendar days, plus a couple if they’re having to use contract labs as well as a contract manufacturer, which is likely, plus getting on the CM’s (contract manufacturer) schedule, plus testing the finished product, again, Micro being the long lead item, minus safety stock, plus the raw material acquisition time, so, call it 3 1/2 weeks behind their anticipated timeline?
And if their management is smart, they’ll have an eye towards building inventory to prevent this issue in the future, as well as running a cost/benefit analysis based on returns, lost productivity, and lost sales vs. the cost of establishing in-house capabilities.
That’s just my thoughts on it, though. 