Case Labs Closing Doors.

[DeathtoGnomes]

My interpretation of the tweet.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1028064322079977472

 

[Toothless]

Thanks Trump. This is why we can't have nice things.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

lets not make this politcal.

 

[FireFox]

lets not make this politcal.

Good point.

 

[bonehead123]

Tariffs....not political ???? Good luck with that

 

[Frick]

Hard to not be political when it seemingly is for a political reason they died. I didn't know they were in effect so soon. That account default may have happened anyway tho, but if they didn't have the margins to lessen the impact..

They should have gone with wood.

Anyone has any idea how big they are/were btw?

 

[RejZoR]

When in doubt, blame Trump. Works every time!

 

[Xzibit]

When in doubt, blame Trump. Works every time!

Thats what i'm thinking. The tarrifs are up to 25% how is it costing them 80% more to make. Source the materials from another place if need be and adjust price.

 

[Joss]

This tariffs justification sounds like an excuse, particularly when they say they can't fulfil current orders.
I wouldn't be surprised to hear some time soon that they relocated to China, and yeah blame Trump cause we were forced to raise our profits.

 

[Caring1]

Of course they don't want to blame themselves and bad management.
Are the tariffs even in effect yet?
I bet none of the directors are broke or living in a trailer park.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Thanks Trump. This is why we can't have nice things.

Maximum tariff on steel is 25% and aluminum is 10% (Case Labs mostly uses aluminum if I'm not mistaken). They're saying 80%. No...they give a hint further down: "the default of a large account." In other words, they missed a debt payment and the creditor wasn't going to negotiate new terms; ergo, they're done. Odds are they weren't charging enough per case made and couldn't charge more because they were accepting back orders (they would have had to cancel the orders to reflect new prices and likely refused to). Also known as: poor business management. Tariffs are just a convenient scapegoat; this announcement was a long time coming.

Edit: Can't figure out who their "parent" company is. The debt that defaulted could be completely unrelated to their case manufacturing business. In which event, Case Labs could potentially be sold to another company in order to help settle the parent company's debt.

 

[Xzibit]

Maybe someone they accused of steeling a case design actually had a patent and sued them back.

Remember when they accused Thermaltake and had to apologize. Maybe TT took them to court.

 

[dj-electric]

Oh sh!t....

 

[Vayra86]

Ehh let's not act like making some PC cases is in any way special, difficult or some sort of art form. Quite the opposite in fact with most companies. There are many brands out there and a lot of them really ain't special. The value here comes from hype and overinflated marketing. In the end all it really is, is a metal box that can hold some components. Apparently the market had no need for caselabs, so that's that.

 

[Xzibit]

Edit: Can't figure out who their "parent" company is. The debt that defaulted could be completely unrelated to their case manufacturing business. In which event, Case Labs could potentially be sold to another company in order to help settle the parent company's debt.

California Fabrication Company

Its a sheet metal fabrication. Started in 1971 most current records show a revenue of 1.4 million with only 8 employees.

 

[Arrakis9]

Thats what i'm thinking. The tarrifs are up to 25% how is it costing them 80% more to make. Source the materials from another place if need be and adjust price.

Panic buying in the market reduces supply and sky rockets the price of materials. Simple economics. Just look at the Gpu market in the past year is basically the same thing here. High demand low supply high prices, that's what panic buying does to any market.

For a more detailed look on this visit OCN, they have a support forum for case labs and there is a ton of activity in there atm.

https://www.overclock.net/forum/380-case-labs/

 

[bonehead123]

At every price point, a case is a case is a case. Some are excellent, some are good and yet others are essentially slapped together crap piles...

Whatever part of the market a mfgr chooses to operate in, they and only they must decide how to manage their products to ensure they make money and also serve their customers as needed.

IIRC, CASELABS chose the upper range of the market. So most of this failure is on them and their mgmt team, as it does with any other company that goes under.

Without knowing the details of that "major account" or whatever, there is no way we can know how much that played into the failure. But blaming the tariffs seems like a cop-out, since most of them are either just now going into effect, or will in the coming months....

 

[FordGT90Concept]

California Fabrication Company

Its a sheet metal fabrication. Started in 1971 most current records show a revenue of 1.4 million with only 8 employees.

How does one make $1.4 million with 8 employees? Probably just corporate for Case Labs (CPA, lawyer, CEO, customer service, etc.).

Panic buying in the market reduces supply and sky rockets the price of materials. Simple economics. Just look at the Gpu market in the past year is basically the same thing here. High demand low supply high prices, that's what panic buying does to any market.

For a more detailed look on this visit OCN, they have a support forum for case labs and there is a ton of activity in there atm.

https://www.overclock.net/forum/380-case-labs/

Raw materials are what percentage of the cost of their cases though? 10%? Not even? The bulk of their costs are likely labor. If they can't handle a 10% shift in prices, their margins in the first place are too small.

 

[micropage7]

too bad caselabs is one from a few

 

[Frick]

When in doubt, blame Trump. Works every time!

To be fair it's very easy to blame him, and not just because he's not likeable.

 

[Deleted member 50521]

So many independent critical thinkers it warms my heart

 

[Frick]

So many independent critical thinkers it warms my heart

Too snowy.

 

[Disparia]

Then I got my Case Labs ITX mounting plate just in time. There are some other options out there, but Case Labs was nicest at the time.

 

[Arctucas]

Thats what i'm thinking. The tarrifs are up to 25% how is it costing them 80% more to make. Source the materials from another place if need be and adjust price.

^This.^

I believe Caselabs was in trouble before the tariffs, althought I might be mistaken.

 

[Frick]

The aluminium industry seems to be in a bit of an uproar on the whole. If their suppliers were badly affected and the tariffs hit and they were in trouble to begin with it's not so strange they went down.