We've Relocated (Again) Even Further!

To paraphrase Neil Armstrong - "That's one small step on the map, one giant leap for The Solid Bar Company".  

In case you hadn't noticed, in April 2017 we relocated from the US Virgin Islands to Florida involving a move of 1,400 miles; not 'quite' as far as Mr Armstrong but almost as problematical and without the NASA backup!

This was, in hindsight, an extremely important and fortuitous move as not long afterwards the islands were struck by not one but three hurricanes, Harvey, Irma and then Maria.

Between them they completely devastated numerous islands in the Caribbean, including our last home on St Thomas, before creating further havoc across the lower states of mainland USA - these natural phenomenon have now become three of the five costliest hurricanes in U.S. history.

Irma and Maria reached category five on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with the former recording wind speeds of 185 mph and gusts of up to 199 mph.

Apart from, and much more significant than, the huge financial damage loss of an estimated $282 billion, there was a record level of human tragedy as the total life loss across the effected regions reached an estimated 3,300 people - sadly nature takes no prisoners and our thoughts will always be with the families of those who have suffered. 

So, then we were much closer to our then main customer base, the US mainland, and able to offer a speedier and more simplified product distribution to them! 

But - this still came with problems - Irma came straight up through the centre of Florida and eventually passed within 50 miles of where we were then based!

Again, luckily, we had taken the meteorologist's warnings and the governor's advice and evacuated along with 7 million other people. If nothing else this gave us the opportunity to be reunited with three other families that we had known in the Virgin Islands as we all found shelter, first in North Carolina then in Georgia.

After the storms and disruptions of 2017 we had to sit down and seriously evaluate what was best for us as a family and for the future of The Solid Bar Company.

Much consideration was made before deciding to relocate, even further this time - almost 4,500 miles - back to the United Kingdom.

We made the move in April 2018 and, after a great deal of due diligence and on-the-ground work finding a suitable location for the business, resourcing ingredients and other vital materials, re-registering the company with all the essential UK and EU bureaucratic departments  - in essence starting all over again in a different country - we were ready to serve our customer base again by mid-June 2018.  

We have now opened up our sales base to the whole world, we ship worldwide, and also now have a partner outlet in The Carolinas to help US customers access our main products more easily - but we do still continue to ship direct to many of our long-term customers from the UK to the USA!

Thank you all for staying with us, enjoy our many new products and have a very Happy New Year. 

Best wishes and welcome back,

from The Solid Bar Company Team.