The Word From "Inside" Maelstrom....

The following is taken from the Beastmen internet forum, and is a response to a comment by NZ local Warpmaster. Mierce Miniatures (the owners of Bane Legions), through Tim Fisher, were promoting the re-release of their early range. Warpy made the comment that he hoped the revenue was going to Maelstrom creditors.

Here is Tim's response:

These miniatures were all a part of the range that was purchased from Maelstrom in May (with negotiations starting in March) - Yes, it's the same owner but the deal was done legally and above board and a price was approved by an independent valuer - Maelstrom received more than a fair price for the range - All this 'transferred for a pound' rumours are just that - rumours from people that are just guessing at best and outright wrong at worst.

The deal that was done was in the tens of thousands of £s, which for a small, relatively unknown range with no game and modest sales (at that time there was little in the way of trade and distribution accs - something we have worked hard upon and grown since) was good money (I know of more popular ranges that have sold for less, some of which were touted to us and/or people I know in the past). A lot of those models had been out for a while and had their initial sales spike - many models do not sell well outside of the 1-3 month period after release, therefore they aren't worth as much as a brand new sculpt/release. Their value diminishes - yet we paid a fair price. Then work started the site which was (finally!) completed in Sept - Though we had worked with trade accs in the months prior to that as Mierce.

Maelstrom had that money and if anything it kept them running for longer. I cannot help what happened with MG and if anything we at Mierce have gone out of our way to help people out. In November I had all my guys working extra hours (which they volunteered for) to get all the MG unfulfilled Mierce customers orders fulfilled. This has cost us thousands in shipping and packing alone, not to mention the cost of materials and man hours - For a small miniatures company it was a bold move and has nearly broke us. We didn't get paid for that - We've been run in our own budget since the buyout - there was no money link and if people think we are rolling in money, you're very wrong!

We worked hard to get those orders fulfilled (and also keep our own orders fulfilled in a timely fashion) and had another blow when we discovered that the data we had from MG re: Unfulfilled orders was wrong and we now have more people to supply (in the NY as we don't have enough time factored in pre-Xmas as we have our own orders to ship and of course my staff want to have some time off with their familiy over the Xmas period) - All of this stock has to be cast and supplied as the stock levels on MGs site were wrong. More time and money for us for which we won't get a penny for as guess what, we're owed money by MG too!

Now I'm sorry if I'm biting here - but you have to understand I have staff here that have families to feed and rent to pay - When people are saying that Mierce has ripped people off and slag us off it can affect them. These guys at Mierce work hard to get minis sent to people and orders are usually shipped the same day they are placed and all customer orders since we launched our own site have been cleared and sent by the Fri of that week.

I can't do anything about MG customers with unfulfilled orders - at that point I was many months into my new tenure at Mierce - and yes people see the link, but if you think the money was hived off to us, you're having a laugh - Me and my staff had our wages paid a week late from Nov's wages as we had such a large shipping bill to pay for the stuff we sent out to MG customers - it cost us literally £thousands.

Yes, the range of miniatures began life under MG, yes it cost MG a lot of money to get the range established - but it also bought in a modest amount (nothing compared to MG's turnrover of course) and the range was largely funded by the staff working on the range - We had a very lucrative side line in selling off second hand minis via ebay that bought in around £2-2.5k a week which covered our wages and then went towards paying for the sculpts - between the amount we bought in via second hand on ebay and the actual sales of the minis the total cost to MG was very little - If you factor in the price we paid for the miniatures when we became a separate entity then MG will have made a modest profit overall on the range and second hand project as whole.

I've seen a lot of rumours about the total costs and they're very uninformed or selective in their info. I know the info on the cost of the minis first hand - It was me that worked overtime on our second-hand line every week for two months to fund the cost of the Chimaera sculpt in 2010!

We Mierce guys always wanted to be separate from MG as we wanted to be independent of any retailer and also to foster relations with other retailers easier. We had a separate part of the building, worked together and funded ourselves via our own sales and services (the only real cross-over was when I helped the events manager out with WFB events) - Finally, many months before MG went belly up we paid an amount to MG for the range that was valued by an independent, professional valuer.

Mierce hasn't ripped anyone off, nor are we in any way financially responsible for any debt MG have. It pains me to see people lose out, it honestly does. I'm a hobbyist and have been since 1990. I know personally some of the people that have lost out.

We at Mierce have also lost out - We've lost our largest customer - MG had selling power that's for sure - There are many ranges that have broken into the UK/Europe on the back of MG stocking their range. We're now waiting on our trade accs to pick up the slack, which is definitely happening as their sales are increasing though it will take time to get replace the lost sales via MG.

Also we've spent a lot of money we had built up on shipping the unfulfilled MG orders for Mierce product as we felt passionately about getting stock to people - We needn't have done that - In many ways we would have been better off to the tune of a few £k but nonetheless we did it and hopefully a couple of hundred customers will have got their stuff in time for Xmas - No it doesn't help everyone, but it's the best we can do. I've thanked my staff members personally for the effort they have put in and I'd like to thank them here as well - They have worked their socks off and busted a nut to get those orders out. Resin casting is a slow and labour intensive process (though one with great results)! and it wasn't easy.

The elephant in the room - Rob Lane. Everyone hates him, he ripped loads of people off right? Put it this way he doesn't have £500k in his back pocket because of this (the total debt to suppliers wasn't £500k that's end of years accounts the debt was more like £200k with GW @ circa £40k) - And Rob struggles to pay his mortgage every month and feed his missus and kids like the rest of us. There's no throne of gold that he's cackling atop. I know Rob, I've known him years we played in the same wargames club for many a year. I know how this has affected him, I've seen him age before my eyes in the last few months. Is he a crook? No (I wouldn't work for him if so) . Has he made mistakes with MG? Yes. When GW stopped MG from selling to the rest of the world removing £1,2million from turnover at a stroke maybe he should perhaps have laid off 20 staff there and then and sold off the gaming venue and the mini range back then and ran the online store from a facelesss unit in the middle of nowhere. But he didn't, he tried to keep things going, which as a person it is to his credit as all those staff managed to pay the bills for another 18 months during a world-wide recession. In hindsight had he been a more ruthless person he'd have done that and many staff would have been made redundant. People have certainly lost out on money on orders they placed with MG and that's terrible, though it's as a result of Rob not wanting to lay off a load of staff. Did Rob want this to happen? NO, he's been backed into a corner - he had a plan, it was stuttering along but the debt was being reduced (at the end it was around £96k, but that was down from £120k earlier in the year so progress was being made and payments were being made) in the end once the rug was pulled he was out of time and out of money. Some people out there have lost out on a large amount of their disposable income that they spent on miniatures that were never sent. I know a lot of people that have lost their jobs - Rob himself also just lost his main source of income (MG). It's not like the guy planned to lose his main source of income, make redundant all his staff, become an internet pariah, blacken his name and enrage a load of customers - oh and lose the company that he had spent years building up and was emotinally invested in not to mention financially. Cash flow kills companies and in the end the cash flow was wrecked and he was ruined. I don't doubt that there are certain people in some quarters that have taken a great delight in this - But in the end the whole story will emerge and some people out there are far from innocent in all of this despite the smoke and mirrors.

Mierce's future remains very much under Rob's stewardship - he will write the game, he is the guy with the vision who will bring the stuff in his head to life. Mierce remains fiercely independent and there is no legal challenge anywhere from anyone to Mierce's ownership. None.

If the GW decision to stop traders from selling to the RoW was such a massive blow to MG then I'm afraid there's another one coming that will be the death knell of all large online retailers within the UK that sell a lot of GW..... GW will soon be bringing in a new addition to their T&Cs. Retailers will be limited to selling £75k of GW product a year. By comparison that's roughly the amount MG would order from GW in two weeks. Yup, two weeks and GW was roughly 50-55% of MGs turnover. So that said I think the days of the giant mega-online store are over (in the UK/Europe at least) . The future is in many smaller stores all ticking over. I wouldn't be placing a GW order with a massive store as once that change comes in someone is going the way of MG..........

OK I've said my peace - I'm not sure what difference it will make in the grand scheme of things. I won't be dragged into a long internet debate as I'm not sure anyone has ever seen one of those resolve amicably- I shall concern myself with posting purely on Mierce matters from now on. I can't do anything about Mierce other than the Mierce team have done their best to help out in all of this and we continue to send orders out promptly.