Caselabs is shutting down.

[Hyperwerk]

So Caselabs is apparently shutting down. Citing increased cost, and reduced margins as incompatible with further day to day operation of the company.Part orders should be fulfilled completely, but the case orders might a different story.   New orders are closed site wide.

I personally will miss this company if it's not saved at the last minute. Offering some of the best custom cases for water cooling (or in general), with regards to options offered. 
jayztwocents , LTT and others are known to use Caselabs products, and thus this is a big blow for the enthusiast pc builders out in the wild.  

Full statement issued:

Quote

We are very sad to announce that CaseLabs and its parent company will be closing permanently. We have been forced into bankruptcy and liquidation. The tariffs have played a major role raising prices by almost 80% (partly due to associated shortages), which cut deeply into our margins. The default of a large account added greatly to the problem. It hit us at the worst possible time. We reached out for a possible deal that would allow us to continue on and persevere through these difficult times, but in the end, it didn’t happen.

 

We are doing our best to ship as many orders as we can, but we won’t be able to ship them all. Parts orders should all ship, but we won’t be able to fulfill the full backlog of case orders. We are so incredibly sorry this is happening. Our user community has been very devoted to us and it’s awful to think that we have let any of you down. There are over 20,000 of you out there and we are very grateful for all the support we have received over the years. It was a great journey that we took together and we’re thankful that we got that chance.

 

We understand that there will likely be a great deal of understandable anger over this and we sincerely apologize. We looked at every option we had. This is certainly not what we envisioned. Some things were just out of our control. We thought we had a way to move forward, but it failed and we disabled the website from taking any more orders.

 

It was a privilege to serve you and we are so very sorry things turned out this way.

Sources:
 http://www.caselabs-store.com/
https://www.facebook.com/CaseLabsUSA/posts/1899183763453620 

 

Photo is also included from the website if it should change.

 

[S w a t s o n]

Quote

The default of a large account added greatly to the problem.

I hope they sue the fuckers

[DrMacintosh]

Damn, those Tariffs really did a number on them. Who would have thought simply slapping a tariff on something without any economical analysis before hand could do so much damage? A lot of US steel companies are hurting from them too. 

[Streetguru]

16 minutes ago, Hyperwerk said:

 

 @AlexTheGreatish

  What are the chances of organizing an emergency factory tour before it shuts down?

 

 

7 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Damn, those Tariffs really did a number on them. Who would have thought simply slapping a tariff on something without any economical analysis before hand could do so much damage? A lot of US steel companies are hurting from them too. 

What are the actual numbers for the cost increase? It sounds like they were already struggling which makes sense given the extremely limited market

[DrMacintosh]

17 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

 @AlexTheGreatish

  What are the chances of organizing an emergency factory tour before it shuts down?

 

 

What are the actual numbers for the cost increase? It sounds like they were already struggling which makes sense given the extremely limited market

In their post it says prices went up by 80% as a combo of Tariffs and shortages. 

[NumLock21]

Sad to seem to go, but they're cases are way too expensive 99% of enthusiast out there. Yes there is a reason why they're cases cost more, but when they bring their prices down a notch or so, then maybe they won't be in this position in the first place.

[Taf the Ghost]

10 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

 @AlexTheGreatish

  What are the chances of organizing an emergency factory tour before it shuts down?

 

 

What are the actual numbers for the cost increase? It sounds like they were already struggling which makes sense given the extremely limited market

Some of Case Labs stuff would have been hit; some would not have been. (The Tariff run actually affects petroleum products a lot more.) It's 25% Import tax, but that usually translates to about a 10% end-user cost increase. They also *haven't gone into effect yet*.

 

The real problem would appear to them being an extremely fragile company. They lost 1 account and their production costs go up 80% from a 25% tariff that isn't active yet. This means a lot of bad decisions were made over time, and they simply got crunched by events when they weren't stable enough to handle them. One could also say that their business model required production cost arbitrage out of China. 

 

This won't be the last company to go under like this, but it also explains why this is happening. The entire Cost Structure of some of these industries is based off getting products at prices that aren't actually viable for the industry. China has been one Recession away from causing this chain of events anyway, it's just being kicked off by the USA.

[PlayStation 2]

9 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Some of Case Labs stuff would have been hit; some would not have been. (The Tariff run actually affects petroleum products a lot more.) It's 25% Import tax, but that usually translates to about a 10% end-user cost increase. They also *haven't gone into effect yet*.

 

The real problem would appear to them being an extremely fragile company. They lost 1 account and their production costs go up 80% from a 25% tariff that isn't active yet. This means a lot of bad decisions were made over time, and they simply got crunched by events when they weren't stable enough to handle them. One could also say that their business model required production cost arbitrage out of China. 

 

This won't be the last company to go under like this, but it also explains why this is happening. The entire Cost Structure of some of these industries is based off getting products at prices that aren't actually viable for the industry. China has been one Recession away from causing this chain of events anyway, it's just being kicked off by the USA.

Hey, we can't have facts being thrown around here, it'll discredit my entire agenda!

[IBM_THINKPAD_R51]

Just Curious, what tariffs? The Recent onces? As in the ones placed this year?

[Streetguru]

11 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Some of Case Labs stuff would have been hit; some would not have been. (The Tariff run actually affects petroleum products a lot more.) It's 25% Import tax, but that usually translates to about a 10% end-user cost increase. They also *haven't gone into effect yet*.

I assume the announcement is in preparation for shutting down due to being a very niche business and some added costs from the tariffs.

But is it really impossible to find a decent local supplier for their materials?

[pinksnowbirdie]

womp womp

but this

7 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Hey, we can't have facts being thrown around here, it'll discredit my entire agenda!

 

[Emberstone]

18 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

But is it really impossible to find a decent local supplier for their materials?

I assume if any option was available to them which would enable the business to continue, they'd have tried.

[TetraSky]

1 hour ago, Swatson said:

I hope they sue the fuckers

Could they though? Usually that means the client went bankrupt. 

Usually, after you go bankrupt, a company or individual, cannot sue you for debts you had prior to filing bankruptcy, this include credit card, loans, business debts, medical bills, utilities, rent, car, etc...
The large account in this case is more than likely a business, like a boutique system builder, who went bankrupt after ordering a bunch of cases on loan. As such they'd be protected.

[Pbr38]

i suppose its too hopeful to pray hat maybe some of their designs and designers get picked up by someone else like corsair, nzxt, etc.

 

i really love my Mercury S8 and im now wishing i had picked up a few of their other designs while i could have

 

farewell dear friends, you will be missed

 

[FireofDestruction]

4 minutes ago, Pbr38 said:

i suppose its too hopeful to pray hat maybe some of their designs and designers get picked up by someone else like corsair, nzxt, etc.

 

i really love my Mercury S8 and im now wishing i had picked up a few of their other designs while i could have

 

farewell dear friends, you will be missed

 

If they did get picked up by corsair/nzxt/coolermaster etc the cases wouldnt be near the quality of what caselabs produced

[S w a t s o n]

12 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

Could they though? Usually that means the client went bankrupt. 

Usually, after you go bankrupt, a company or individual, cannot sue you for debts you had prior to filing bankruptcy, this include credit card, loans, business debts, medical bills, utilities, rent, car, etc...
The large account in this case is more than likely a business, like a boutique system builder, who went bankrupt after ordering a bunch of cases on loan. As such they'd be protected.

To default just means to not adhere to the financial agreement. It's possible what you say is true but it's also possible that the money is recoverable, just like when a person defaults on a loan. They aren't scott free

[Pbr38]

1 minute ago, FireofDestruction said:

If they did get picked up by corsair/nzxt/coolermaster etc the cases wouldnt be near the quality of what caselabs produced

i know, but at least they wouldn't just die completely

[potoooooooo]

The writing has been on the wall for a very long time.

 

It's been at least a year since they had to stop taking custom orders. They've been behind on case orders for even longer. It was only a matter of time.

 

I wish they could have pulled through, but i also wish this was a surprise.

[Bcat00]

Damn, this sucks.

I hate to be in their position right now, getting screwed over by tariffs, something completely out of their control.

 

And before anyone call Bullshit on the excuse, it's not. Just go look at the average cost of raw metals and you will see it rose drastically in the past month.

[Rune]

When we sold our last mercury s8 at work I was sad didnt know we'd never see them again

[Jurunce]

I was hoping to eventually upgrade my Corsair 900D with their Caselabs Magnum SMA8 Revision A case. But holy shit my plans have changed dramatically!

 

It appears that I might keep the 900D and mod it as much as I can. Here's my modding to-do list:

1. Tempered glass panel (3/8 thick, clear)
2. Upgrade front I/O panel (4x USB 3.1 Gen.1 ports, 1 USB 3.1 Gen.2 Type C, and 1 HDMI port)
3. 560mm radiator support (the case can fit such a radiator once clearance for it has been made)

[Mihle]

6 hours ago, NumLock21 said:

Sad to seem to go, but they're cases are way too expensive 99% of enthusiast out there. Yes there is a reason why they're cases cost more, but when they bring their prices down a notch or so, then maybe they won't be in this position in the first place.

They had a backlog of orders. Selling more at a lower price would not have helped them.

[Mihle]

Was never going to get one of their case, if I didn't win money somehow for it, but It's sad to see them go because their cases was good.

[mr moose]

So a tariff that isn't implemented yet is blamed for a company going arse up and you people believe it without question?  Crikey!

[RorzNZ]

Thats very unfortunate. Great cases for a reasonable price.