Why so many delays from TOPP?

We know it seems like it's just been one delay after another in getting your Painted Ponies this year, but we want you to know that something is being done about it.


A lot has gone on this year, the first year of Trail of Painted Ponies being manufactured by Enesco. You can start with changes in China with regard to labor laws that have ultimately changed the way things are done in getting products to market. For example: in the past if you needed a bunch of items manufactured hastily you would place your purchase order and the factory would hire as many temporary employees as it needed to push out your product. With China's new labor laws the use of temporary employees is frowned on. To get product out in a hurry now, as with the case of Trail of Painted Ponies re-casts, you're going to have to be a little more creative. I think at this point, almost a year into Enesco's contract with TOPP, Enesco is ready to admit that they could have done a better job getting product out to the retailers and consumers. In fact, right now they are making operational changes that should improve their ability to get the products the retailers want, to the retailers, when they want them.


The most recent bottleneck is the increase in security at customs brought on by the recent news of bombs being shipped into the U.S. from Yemen. I suppose we should have expected this at some point with the continued threat of terrorism, but I guess we just thought all that could be done was being done. None the less, knowing this was going to happen probably wouldn't have changed anything. It's going to delay the arrival of the product regardless.


It appears that Enesco is working hard to improve at least the manufacturing bottleneck by placing smaller purchase orders which will have the affect of getting a greater variety of products out to the retailers in a more timely manner. For now, it's nice to know that they are sensitive to our complaints and are taking steps to improve things. We're looking forward to improvements for 2011.