THE FIREWORK SEASON REVIEW 2020:

The Year the world turned upside down, lockdowns, the unknown and a firework season we could never forget.

Firework Kingdom

The year started as normal with our colleagues in china sourcing new and exciting products for the year ahead, with our range now selected for the 2020 season we went ahead with ordering our stock to beat the queues. Then news broke that there was a virus that was sweeping across china and that the world should watch carefully as fears were growing that the virus could be the start of a pandemic. Little did we know what was about to happen in the not too distant future?   

As we headed into February we had learned that China had gone into a full lockdown with our colleagues in china giving us regular updates on the ever changing situation. As the country came to a standstill with only essential shopping allowed we realised that unless things changed quickly there was going to be incredibly difficult times ahead, as the manufacturing window was getting smaller and American peak season was fast approaching.

APRIL 2020 – LOCKDOWN

By April 2020 the whole world had some form of lockdown in place with only essential travel allowed. Reports that the shipping companies were only moving essential goods was a massive blow to the fireworks industry  as this meant that in order to move our non essential goods the price was to sky rocket.

Shipping fireworks over the years has held steady around the $8,000/$9000 mark, this particular year the price jumped to between $35,000 and $40,000 this meant that fireworks would now cost 35/40% more on the previous year.

With the situation changing every day all we could do was wait........

MAY 2020 – MANUFACTURE

Due to the Pandemic the factories in china were operating on reduced working hours as the government tried to control the virus. Many of the factories simply didn’t have the time to manufacture the goods that were ordered and this meant any stock holding that they had was immediately soaked up by the American market. We now had a very small window to have the fireworks manufactured for the UK market.

JULY 2020 – SHIPPING PORTS

The shipping ports in china were now at full capacity as the demand out of china exploded. Moving fireworks was now looking very worrying and here in the UK we were all very nervous if we would receive anything at all. Along with stock worries we were now extremely worried that we would not have enough stock for season ahead. The government eased lockdown restrictions for the summer which was encouraging sign providing the fireworks landed in time.

Our colleagues in China confirmed to us that we had joined the queue at the ports and that they were desperately trying to push our stocks onto the shipping vessels. 

OCTOBER / NOVEMBER

As we headed into the winter months, we had news that we had stock on the ships and that it was on its way to the UK. This was great news however the UK ports were under pressure and allowing non essential goods was taking longer than usual as essential goods had priority.

By the 20^th October all stock that was due to arrived had landed and we had it in our bunkers the next problem we faced was a potential lockdown and all non essential shops to close...................

We now prepare the shop ensuring we have placed all safety signs, screens and hand sanitizers out in preparation for the busiest time of the year – BONFIRE NIGHT.

NOVEMBER 5^th BONFIRE NIGHT – CANCELLED PUBLIC DISPLAYS- CONSUMER SALES ON THE RISE.

Boris Johnson announces that we will be having a second lockdown beginning on the 5^th November.....the announcement states all non-essential shops to close unless they have a click and collect facility. This couldn’t have come at a worse time. Thankfully we have a click and collect facility as our website has been up and running for over 5 years.

On the lead up to bonfire night we had a early surge and demand for fireworks was unprecedented as all public displays were cancelled meaning that people would have to celebrate bonfire night at home under the rule of 6. This encouraged many people to order their fireworks online as we still offered a delivery service or click and collect. Customers turned out in large numbers but we couldn’t serve them unless they ordered with us via the government’s guidance, obviously this upset a few people but the majority were understanding and ordered online and collected later.  It was very difficult as we were understaffed as we had members on furlough and COVID was sweeping through us all at an alarming rate.  As we only have such a short window to make our money and survive as a business it was vital that we didn’t stop here as we continued to push through as our livelihoods relied on it. Thankfully November the 5^th landed on a Thursday which meant that we had 2 opportunities to get the orders in and give us enough time to organise our click and collect/delivery service.  

Although Bonfire night sales proved very challenging and difficult to serve everyone we did manage to get all of the orders out in time for the big day.

Let’s just say we were very lucky.....some others didn’t make it through.

DECEMBER - NEW YEARS EVE FIREWORK SALES ROCKET.

8^th of November we are all recovering after the bedlam of bonfire night. Stock levels were very low and we suppliers had all but sold out, With New year just a few weeks away it was a panic to buy up any stocks that we could get hold of. Just like before, New Year was plunged into another lockdown and the rule of 6 was firmly back in place. Shopping for fireworks was going to be another difficult period. Thankfully the public ordered early as they had learnt from the previous months ordering process. Firework sales were good overall as we managed to source stock from our suppliers but others were less fortunate. I can only speak from Firework Kingdoms point of view and explain that getting hold of stock was very difficult.

THANK YOU FROM FIREWORKS KINGDOM

We would like to thank each and every one of our customers for their continued support through one of the most difficult periods we have seen for some time. We were so pleased to see that fireworks played such an important role in giving us some sort of normality it what was unprecedented times. Fireworks once again lit up the skies and shone a shining light when times really were looking bad. It was great to see how important bonfire night was to so many families. Hopefully 2021 will bring more success, health and happiness to everyone.

RICHARD HOGG

FIREWORKS KINGDOM

01/12/21