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New Heighway Owner

mufcmufc

Staff member
Joined
Jul 21, 2011
Messages
2,544
Location
Midlands
Alias
Nik
Repost from pinside:


Hello to all pinball enthusiasts out there, we are active investors in Heighway Pinball Ltd.

There has been a lot of talk, and also silence, over the last few weeks. For this we are sorry but we have not been legally able to reach out to you before now.

We are now happy to announce that we have reached an agreement on how to take over the business and move it forward.

We are all pinball enthusiasts and professional business owners. We are fully committed to making your games and we have the plan and finance in place to make this happen.

We have drawn up a detailed strategy to invest money into the company, both to ensure that machines are built to the highest quality and also to ensure that healthy numbers are shipped as quickly as possible.

The company will have new management, new leadership and new funding to make sure that everyone, who has money at stake, will get their ordered pinball machines.

The budget and business plan for how to make this a success has been carefully drawn up and is about to be put in place.

The transaction is now in progress and legal papers are being drawn up as you read this. We hope you all will bear with us for the next couple of weeks as we get everything in place.

We have had positive talks with our major distributors around the world and we thank them all for their patience and for believing in us.

Together with our suppliers, distributors and you pinball enthusiasts, we can make this happen. Alien is a great game and there are more to follow.

We will keep you updated and communication channels will be opened as soon as we are settled in.

Thank you for your understanding and patience in advance. We understand your frustrations and concerns. All of us investors are in the same boat as you, waiting for their games to be shipped and, after much time spent at the factory, we have taken matters into our own hands to ensure that Heighway Pinball can survive and prosper.

Regards
Investor Group - Heighway Pinball Ltd
 
Good news for Alien buyers, bad news for Heighway who has invested a lot of time and effort into the company
 
Coalition of chaos ?

It creates a lot of questions, they've asked for TWO WEEKS so they're already down with the Heighway speak :p However they are current Heighway investors so they do know the company. I'll leave it 2 weeks then ask for my machine
 
God bless Andy Heighway, hope all his vision and efforts are rewarded, It's tough out there, and I believe he is an inspiration to others to go out on a limb and chase a dream, no matter how crazy. I certainly do not class Heighway Pinball as a failure but instead a great UK success. Apologies in advance as Friday night booze is kicking in so I don't intend to start any debates.
 
Can't see much changing to be honest it's pretty obvious that highway pinball has been in trouble for some time now and the investors have done nothing if I was an investor I would have been at the factory every day to sort this out not just let it run itself into the ground
Sadly being an pinball enthusiast and having deep pockets is just not enough to be able to run a pinball company I heard a rumour it cost jjp around 5 million to put woz into production as it stands at the min the factory is yesrs away of becoming a mass pinball producer the facilities are let's say poor and there is no staff
Also it's not like you can put out an add for a skilled pinball assembler the skills for this are just not there it would take months to train someone up to do this
I find it very sad that the investors have also sat and watched people pay in full for machines and the company has just been run into the ground
Let's hope everyone gets there machines they have paid for and also people waiting for parts to keep these machines going
 
Kaneda had a great interview with JJP on his podcast yesterday. Jack was getting some serious stick for the delays behind woz but when you see the numbers involved it's amazing he ever managed to get the company up and running.
 
As an engineer who has worked in product design, testing and production I can tell you that the difference between making a few dozen games to potentially 1000s is monumental. Everything becomes exponentially bigger. As well as more staff, bigger premises, bigger energy bills etc there are the problems of suppliers delivering large quantities on time, QA issues, design changes etc. The list is endless and to make it work you need a REALLY strong team at the head of the project. You need to establish a strong supplier base who can supply good quality parts, on time and at a good price. You need engineers who can deal quickly and efficiently with design flaws and problems and you need a well trained, motivated staff. SOPs (standard operating procedures) are a must to ensure that consistency is applied throughout the whole production process and that every product is of the same spec and quality.
Then there are the seemingly little things that can have a huge impact on production. For example it is imperative to have a solid control over engineering drawings revisions. It is VERY easy to get parts or assemblies made to old versions of drawings unless there is only one (the latest) drawing available to purchasing and manufacturing staff.

Now I'm not saying for one moment that these problems apply to Heighway but high volume manufacturing of complex electro mechanical products is very expensive and very demanding.

I wish them all the best and hope they can sort out their problems and get games built.
 
I also thought is was strange Andrew was buying all those huge manufacturing machines because he wanted to make all the parts himself instead of relying on suppliers. I was going to order an Alien a few weeks ago but I think Stern will get my money now.
 
I also thought is was strange Andrew was buying all those huge manufacturing machines because he wanted to make all the parts himself instead of relying on suppliers. I was going to order an Alien a few weeks ago but I think Stern will get my money now.
The thing with buying huge manufacturing machines is that they need tooling, maintenance and skilled operators. Money, money, money.
There are manufacturing techniques that have been developed in the last five years that most people don't even know exist. Work smarter, not harder.
 
so who are these people, what are their resources, how are they going to get the production moving? Feels like another load of DP BS!
 
so who are these people, what are their resources, how are they going to get the production moving? Feels like another load of DP BS!
According to the Pinside thread they are existing investors who have been at Heighway for some time. Why weren't these issues addressed previously then if they have been there all along ? Why now ?
 
According to the Pinside thread they are existing investors who have been at Heighway for some time. Why weren't these issues addressed previously then if they have been there all along ? Why now ?
Maybe it was finally make or break, so they had to step up or move on.
 
Maybe it was finally make or break, so they had to step up or move on.
Nearly always too late if that is the case Paul. If (as it seems) it has got to the stage where people are demanding their money back then the only way forwards is a massive cash injection that will essentially underwrite the process from where they are now to having hundreds of boxed (working) games ready to sell.
I have seen the videos of the factory and nothing suggests to me that it is in any way geared up to manufacture vast quantities of incredibly complex electro mechanical devices.

We also have to ask what brought this to a head ? It is certainly going to be down to cash flow but what caused that ? Is it that the development of the PHYSICAL build of the sub assemblies (i.e. xenomorph head) does not match the design intent ? In my experience THAT is a huge problem in engineering design. It can swallow huge resources of time AND money. Some very talented design engineers design some wonderful things but have no idea how to make them work (properly). That is essentially what I do. I make moving parts work as they were intended.
 
lack of credit worthiness? being on pro forma with suppliers?
Yup, could be. All down to cash flow. Companies don't supply parts on promises or goodwill.

I will say though that the few games that have shipped recently without the xenomorph is very telling.
 
very sad news, hope highway makes it as the machines from jjp and heighway make sterns look cheap in my eyes. i still want one, and have cash waiting, love my sterns but just not in the league of the hobbit or full throttle for inginuity and boundry pushing.

pity stern are not pushing the envelope, long live these garagenistas as they keep us dreaming for better unlike the ford fiestas stern are happy to churn out.
 
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very sad news, hope highway makes it as the machines from jjp and heighway make sterns look cheap in my eyes. i still want one, and have cash waiting, love my sterns but just not in the league of the hobbit or full throttle for inginuity and boundry pushing.

pity stern are not pushing the envelope, long live these garagenistas as they keep us dreaming for better unlike the ford fiestas stern are happy to churn out.
Let's not forget that JJP very nearly went tîts up and only survived after a huge financial bailout.
As much as their games don't appeal to me it would appear that Spooky has made the better job of establishing a new pinball manufacturing company.

Pinball IS hard to manufacture.
 
Yup, could be. All down to cash flow. Companies don't supply parts on promises or goodwill.

I will say though that the few games that have shipped recently without the xenomorph is very telling.

Yes and I assume that company's will be owed money so I would think it would be cash upfront from now on for parts murco who make the playfield struggle to produce there own stuff and with jjp needing di playfield they may be a long wait

On the investors side they seems to be lots of them in for different amounts and from all over the world that to me seems like a disaster as nobody ever agrees on any thing
 
Let's not forget that JJP very nearly went tîts up and only survived after a huge financial bailout.
As much as their games don't appeal to me it would appear that Spooky has made the better job of establishing a new pinball manufacturing company.

Pinball IS hard to manufacture.

It's hard to do and be at the right cost point. But it requires a lot of thought in production engineering - that's why stern do so well because they stick to things they know they can make - they are accused of not being innovative but it's not just about bolting a £3 quid Bluetooth/NFC chip on the machine it's also about integrating it testing it and living with it.

I was at BMW for 6 weeks on a course and they spend as much time on the production process as the car design process.

You see CGC who are showing that with with right focus it can be done - pudding is still to be tasted but it looks good so far!


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It's hard to do and be at the right cost point. But it requires a lot of thought in production engineering - that's why stern do so well because they stick to things they know they can make - they are accused of not being innovative but it's not just about bolting a £3 quid Bluetooth/NFC chip on the machine it's also about integrating it testing it and living with it.

I was at BMW for 6 weeks on a course and they spend as much time on the production process as the car design process.

You see CGC who are showing that with with right focus it can be done - pudding is still to be tasted but it looks good so far!


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Production is critical to a company's existence. It is very easy to get wrong and result in massive inefficiency. It is also an area where huge amounts of money can be saved. My company recently spent a fortune on getting 6 of us trained and qualified in LEAN manufacturing. We will recoup that expenditure within the next six months. Efficiency is the key. Busy fools syndrome is expensive and inefficient.
 
Does it really matter how many investors? No it doesn't. The only thing what matters is, they are there. These people know about Pinball and run a business. Stop f...g speculating things and gossiping and let the investors and us employees do our job which we couldn't do in the past. More information will come shortly from the investors. Thanks
 
Does it really matter how many investors? No it doesn't. The only thing what matters is, they are there. These people know about Pinball and run a business. Stop f...g speculating things and gossiping and let the investors and us employees do our job which we couldn't do in the past. More information will come shortly from the investors. Thanks

Sorry dood but what a load of nonsense ! whilst your company doesn't communicate and it has other people's money you get what you get - for all we know the investors could be Nigel Farage and the three stooges. You want speculation and gossip to stop? then communicate the details and given this industry that means probably being more transparent than any other normal company! It's as simple as that!


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Production is critical to a company's existence. It is very easy to get wrong and result in massive inefficiency. It is also an area where huge amounts of money can be saved. My company recently spent a fortune on getting 6 of us trained and qualified in LEAN manufacturing. We will recoup that expenditure within the next six months. Efficiency is the key. Busy fools syndrome is expensive and inefficient.

Start your huddle now! ;)


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Does it really matter how many investors? No it doesn't. The only thing what matters is, they are there. These people know about Pinball and run a business. Stop f...g speculating things and gossiping and let the investors and us employees do our job which we couldn't do in the past. More information will come shortly from the investors. Thanks

Have you never heard the phrase too many cooks spoil the broth
People are entitled to there opinion and there is no need to use bad language this looks very poor to potential customers if you are an investor
As for employees there is about 4 isn't there
 
You all will know shortly who the investors (No Farage or Stooges) are and what the exactly plan is for the future. There will be more information and updates shortly. Stay tuned
 
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