News From Down Under

News From Down Under News From Down Under
with John-Paul.

It has been over ten years that Battlefront has had a sales office in New Zealand serving both the local and Australian stores. Over the years we have tried many different ways to manage the market here but we keep coming back to the simple answer that we are in the wrong place. Having an office in Australia to handle New Zealand - the much smaller market - makes sense, but trying to do it the other way round has us managing a distribution network that works but is far from ideal for many reasons.

Aetherworks Hobby Products
We have thought long and hard about the next step for the market down here and after looking and discounting the feasibility of opening an office in Australia ourselves, we have decided to find a partner who can manage the supply on a local level better than us. Aetherworks are that company and we have entered into a long-term agreement with them to supply stores in Australia and New Zealand on our behalf. The Aetherworks team has been in the market long enough to see what is needed to adapt and succeed, and it was for this key factor that we chose them to represent us going forward.

From today Aetherworks will be the primary supply relationship for all stores in New Zealand and Australia. Your local stores have been told and things are already underway to ensure a continuous flow of stock so that this transition should make no difference to you at all.

The good news is that with our move to a US$ pricing model the market will see prices in local currency match the price abroad; this should save you all the need to shop online overseas. And with a local business based in Sydney managing things, the flow of stock and communication will be better than ever.

We will continue to support the gaming community. And, although Aetherworks will be handling things for us, we are treating this market as we always have: home territory. So you will probably see more work going into this area than ever before as we give our support to this new venture.

The last piece of the puzzle has also been switched on today. Our online store has just been changed over to our US$ pricelist. This means that although your local store will still sell to you in the local currency, you should find that all new pricing going forward will match the local equivalent of the US$ price on our site.

All orders will now be shipped from the UK office, as we are closing the warehouse here in Auckland, and their postage rates and speed are better than ours from New Zealand to Australia. So you will find the service works better than ever before. All the orders placed prior to today are being finished and shipped out with the old system, but if you are one of those customers you should have already had a note telling you that.

This change is a positive one in every way and we are sure you will agree when you see and feel how it will affect you all personally. The last thing to say is that the office closure here in Auckland is just the warehouse function, so the studio team and everybody else are unaffected by this change. We just have more gaming space downstairs now than ever before.

~ John-Paul.