fact that we bought early and committed to stock, without any guarantee that we’d be able to sell to customers, has meant that we protected our clients from the bulk of that inflation. We have tried to protect customers from some of the worst inflation levels, which on certain components is 10-15 times the pre- pandemic levels, and so I’m really pleased that we were so bold in order to mitigate the impact on sale prices.
How has the gaming sector learned to not only survive, but thrive during the pandemic? Do you think we’ve established a long-term rhythm, despite the erratic nature of short- term disruption?
What we’ve seen is a much greater degree of forward-ordering, better visibility, and commitment from our customers in terms of their needs over the coming months. Tis has helped improve our visibility of what we need to buy. Initially in 2021 there was a lot of guesswork in regards to customers’ demand, which was skewed against previous years due to the pandemic. Tankfully, customers have adopted a more confident view in terms of their future needs based on a resumption of more normal trading. And we’re also now in the swing of regular updates on deliveries and notice periods from our suppliers.
We have entered a more normalised period, despite the fact that technology supplies are anything but normal.
“The boldness with which Quixant invested early in the pandemic has paid back in dividends for our
customers. Some of the price rises we’ve seen on components has been extraordinary, but the fact that we bought early and
committed to stock, has meant
that we protected our clients from the bulk of that inflation.”
A running theme in our Quixant interviews is the topic of “supply-chain issues.” Much like COVID, it feels like a headache that won’t go away, did we see much relief in the latter stages of 2021? And is 2022 shaping up to better or more of the same?
I’m an optimist, so I do believe that there will be a reversion to normality and that the shortages we are seeing now will abate. We’ve seen similar shortages in the semiconductor market in the past, albeit in much more isolated pockets. For example, flash memory, DRAM and hard drives have all previously undergone shortages. Specific key factors were responsible for those issues, whether that’s been a factory fire or facility upgrades creating shortages.
What’s unusual this time is that it’s everything, not just one component - but all of them. And they’re in short supply and costing more too. Tere are a myriad of reasons for this. Taking a macro-economic view, people haven’t been travelling or going about their normal business – they have been buying items for their homes. People have bought more equipment, TVs, laptops and white goods, which has created a demand issue as these products all require chips. Some have been buying smart devices that use more electronics – and then there have been supply issues caused by the factory closures in 2020.
Production stopped for long periods of time which created the triple whammy of demand from consumers, less chips in the market and more products requiring chips than ever before. Te combination has led to extra shortages in the semiconductor market.
Stock shortages are affecting all industry sectors - is gaming getting its fair share of the tech supply and how is Quixant working to ensure its at the front of the queue?
Right now, I’d say that gaming isn’t getting its fair share. Consumer companies that buy chips by the million are far more attractive propositions for the semiconductors businesses as opposed to supplying thousands to the industrial markets. I believe the embedded marketplace is only getting a limited supply of components, and Gaming is
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