Hello to All the Beautiful People of our Big Jollylook Community!
We hope you all are well, staying safe, and staying healthy.
We want to thank all of our backers.
Thank you for your endless support and your kind words.
Thank you for believing in us.
It has been a while since our last update, and we have a lot of news and thoughts to share with you.
Probably many of you are aware of the terrible events that took place in the town of Bucha, which is only a few minutes drive from Irpin. No words can describe the pain this caused us.
Since the beginning of the war, the situation for us, like for many, was tough and unpredictable.
Our laser cutting machines were in Bucha, and our office and assembly unit with all the components was in Irpin.
Jumping ahead, I must say we were very lucky! Although unfortunately, the laser cutting machines and the computers in Bucha were damaged. Thank God the office and everything in it survived.
In March, when the russian army invaded Irpin and Bucha, we still did not know the state of everything in our office, but it was already clear that it would not be possible to continue working in Bucha and Irpin soon.
There was no clear answer as to what action plan to take, but we were looking for any options to save the project and did not give up.
As soon as it became possible to visit Irpin in mid-April, we were relieved to find out that our office survived. We had to quickly pack all the components and development units and transport them to the Lviv region in the West.
We were lucky once again. Roman, the father of our teammate Kateryna, was volunteering as a driver for humanitarian aid from Lviv to Irpen. He made a lot of trips in his minivan, and he helped us move all the components from our office to Lviv on his way back. This process was long and dangerous because of the many unexploded bombs scattered everywhere in Irpen. There were many known cases of people bumping into them, so to prevent the danger, the authorities regularly imposed curfews to defuse these bombs.
We want to once again say a massive Thank You to Roman! This wonderful, brave man.
The restart:
During March and April, we studied the possibility of restarting the production in western Ukraine or the nearest European country.
If in Europe, then the question was in which country is it better to do it in terms of ease of doing business, taxes, availability of the suppliers we need, logistics, cost of living, etc.
We considered Romania, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic.
After visiting all three countries and doing the research, Slovakia turned out to be the best option for restarting on all counts. We decided to restart our assembly in Zvolen, a city in the central part of Slovakia.
The people we met in Zvolen were super generous and kind and helped us find everything we needed.
We have already found accommodation, assembly and cutting premises, laser cutting machines, plywood suppliers, boxes, and electronics manufacturers.
We are now registering a company in Slovakia. In June, we plan to move everything from Lviv to Zvolen and start the restarting. We expect that we will be able to quickly recover and begin the assembly of the camera bodies in July.
Our estimated plan:
July: start cutting and assembling camera bodies.
August: First small batch assembly begins.
September: the first small batch is ready, and shipment begins.
October: expansion of production and shipment of the second batch.
November: final batch ready and all rewards shipped.
Please note that this is the estimated plan, not the exact plan. There is a chance of a delay, and we will let you know in advance if it changes.
We hope that this horrible war ends soon.
The best thing we can do now for our families and our country is not to give up, and we won't.
All our energy is focused on re-launching our project.
Without you, this project would not have been possible, and it will be a success because of you.
Thank you for your continued support.
We just want peace.
Slava Ukraini!
THANK YOU!
Until next time,