All American Pressure Canner UPDATE
I just wanted to send out a quick post to let all of you know what is happening with All American Canners. We had a conversation with the company which fabricated s the canners on November 17th as part of our routine checks on suppliers. During that conversation the manufacturer let us know that the demand for canners has gone up and shows no signs of letting up. Because of this higher demand they are now projecting a 6-month lead-time on our orders.
I can’t say I was surprised to hear this, although I was very disappointed. All American Pressure Canners in my opinion and many others… are the best pressure canner in the world. The reason they are so good is because they do not use a gasket for a seal (they are metal on metal sealing surfaces and therefore no gasket to fail) and they are cast out of aluminum. This makes them extremely durable and therefore they last a very very long time. In fact, it is one of very few products out there that you can truly say are heirloom quality. If you purchase one of these units, your children’s children will be using your All American Canner. We have had many customers who bought parts for their canner that were over 60 years old (some were much older than that!)
One of the features that makes the All American Pressure Canner the most durable (cast aluminum) which also makes it so difficult to ramp up production. Currently the company that fabricates these units is running 24 hours/day, 7 days/week. The company requires a foundry to make the casting for the canners. Unfortunately, when you require a foundry for production, they can’t just "add another foundry". It’s not like adding a new CNC machine or increasing one’s factory equipment. In order to produce more canners, the company would actually have to build a whole other foundry with all of it’s supporting equipment. Basically, it is like building a mini city. As you can imagine the cost would be astronomical and the lead-time to get something like that done is significant. So, as you can see, increasing production to meet demand can only be done by adding more shifts to use what you already have…..and that has already been done!
And here we are with the long wait times as a result of this dilemma. If you want an All American Pressure Canner, your best bet these days is to pre-order now or as soon as possible. We work in this industry every day and as part of that we are constantly talking to suppliers - what they are consistently telling us is "they are expecting an even bigger rush/demand for their products next year".
There is some good news in all of this...…we have been ordering our canners in massive quantities. We have spaced out our orders so that we have a constant trickle of product coming in. We just received a very large order this last week and all of the canners we received were shipped out to customers that same day. This cleared up a lot of the current pre-orders. We have more that are due to arrive in the first week of December and still more in late December.
This will clear up MOST of the remainder of our pre orders (with the exception of one model: 915 All American Canner) and we may even have some stock left over to ship immediately. We will be one of very few companies in Canada that actually have canners in stock. I do not expect them to last long. The demand for our canners is, as I had said before - astronomical. In a recent conversation with the All American Pressure Canner manufacturer – they let us know the orders that we had been told to expect late December/early January are now delayed further to mid-February, they also informed us of a price increase. So that’s where things are at as of today.
I wish we had better news in terms of supply but I think we can all agree that this kind of thing is going to be the new norm for the next several months to a year. I want you to know that we literally have thousands of these canners on order. They are going to arrive, as they are made available from our supplier. At this point we are the largest retailer of these in Canada.
I, just like you, dislike pre-orders and I certainly don’t like waiting for a product when I want it. But if I were to leave you with a piece of advice it’s this… with things going the way they are, do not hesitate to get the things that are considered a necessity - a high quality pressure canner is a necessity in my opinion. If you do hesitate, given the demand we are seeing, there is a real chance that you might not get one in time for next year’s canning season.
I will hold the current pricing on our canners until the end of Black Friday. At which time we will have to increase the price of our canners to match the supplier’s increase. We will keep you updated on our current supply in stock over the coming weeks as our orders arrive.
We are trying our best to get the products you all need! Your business means so much to us! I would like to extend a heartfelt THANKS from Jacquie, myself and our staff. We are not a faceless corporation… the bulk of our family make their living working at Good2GoCo. Your continued support is very much appreciated. It makes all the difference!
Many Blessings,
Martin
President/CEO