Friday 9 September 2011

"Bye Bye Zim!"

Hello all - it's Tony Fu here - you may have heard that I'm now involved in SlopeRacer, so here's the how and why!

It’s with regret that the three - SlopeRacer, Zim and his new day job in the city could not continue. It cannot be denied that Zim has moved the business forward, bringing in more moulded gliders through a greater number of manufacturers, giving us more access to our beloved mouldies than ever before.

Distributing moulded gliders properly requires serious investment, buying in quantity and having the planes first before asking customers for money. Ordering 50-100 mouldies at a time takes a leap of faith but it’s proving to be the right way. Sending out a mouldie the next day to a customer is now common place for us. Not surprisingly you buy more when we have them in stock!

Zim has left a healthy growing business but he didn’t want Sloperacer to go to just anybody. He wanted someone that understood the culture of SlopeRacer and would carry on the good work but as a FULL time business, but most importantly he wanted it to go to someone who would invest substantially in stock, as waiting for a mouldie is NOT the way it has to be! With me being able to commit to this as a full time business, it's possible for me to reach a consistent level of service that was impossible for Zim no matter how late into the evenings he was prepared to be packing and prepping models! After much discussion, we figured out a way to make it happen, and here I am.

So there we have it, I’ll buy in more and more tempting shiny, new plastic that you can either browse on the website, or come down to my new showroom in Leeds and browse in person - I’m still running an installation business for these superb machines and will continue to try to make them readily available to more flyers and especially those that are just interested in flying and not necessarily building! Mouldies are no longer just for the dedicated few.

‘Zimbo’ is not going away though. He’s going to be ‘assisting’ in all the interesting stuff that Sloperacer is planning for the future. These are our projects and will take Sloperacer through the next phase of growth - yep, I’ll be getting him to build me some new shelves because we’re fast running out! And, oh yes, I think we all liked reading his blogspot and his muses from slope flying and that will continue. 

So thank you and good luck, Zim! And to close this entry, a quick note from Zim himself…

“Just very briefly, to all those who have bought models from me in the last couple of years, thanks ever so much for your support – I hope that they continue to put a smile on your faces every time you fly them. As for those of you who probably had some hassle getting hold of me in the last couple of months – please accept my MOST sincere apologies – things did get rather overly busy with other commitments, hence the reason for starting to talk to Tony about moving the business forward. I really and truly believe that Tony is the best thing that can happen to SlopeRacer to take it to the next level – with his freely given technical expertise and absolutely infectious enthusiasm I’m convinced that you will all really enjoy dealing with him in the future. I’ve worked with him now for quite a while, and recommend him to you MOST highly!

All the best, Tony, and thanks again to all SlopeRacer’s customers, past and present. See you on the slopes!

Z”