Last Blog Post on Our Recovery

Hi All

We have our systems all dialed in now. The color system is great, the parts department is making beautiful blanks and all the other systems are tuned. We will see a large upturn in shipping volume over the next 10 days.

I cannot adequately here express our sincere gratitude for the support you (our customer) have given us during this challenging period in our history. The letters, calls and e-mails in support and in commitment to our products and people are the reason for our quick return. We were motivated to return quickly - but, you all made it very easy for us to push real hard and get back to operations faster than we thought possible.

Thank you!

Scott Neal

Other housekeeping items:

We are currently in the process of updating and bringing back our website. I think it will be up and running next week.

The website will have all the updated forms and contact information you need. If you have any ideas for our website in the way of support information, please send me an e-mail at scott@paradisepictures.com

Update on our Shipping Progress

September 23, 2008

Shipping Rate

Our shipping rate continues to improve. Color is starting to be very good and consistent and so is the blank parts flow.

Due to our own high internal standards, we are rejecting quite a few jobs before they ship - all this is related to color adjustments with the new system and parts manufacturing using a revised porcelain formula. We soon expect to be back where we were before the fire.

A note about reject rates: Is this our best work? Does it closely match the photograph? These are a few of the questions our people ask when doing final quality control reviews on every portrait. I won't share our current reject rate here because it just gives our competitors something to talk about. It's only important to us and it reflects how we are meeting our quality standards. The secret is - we all have a reject rate and I'm sure we all manage to varying levels of acceptability. It's the nature of what we all are challenged with every day. You'd be surprised at what happens in an oven between 900 and 1400 degrees!

Domes and Frames

Our doming dies are almost finished. What happened to the machinist that could calculate an arc and make a die that won't rock? Need I say more? They are coming soon. If you've ordered a dome and need it quickly - please give us a call and we'll change it to a flat part to ship sooner.

Frames - our original covered frames are just starting to be delivered this week. Thank you for your patience. Your jobs will ship soon if waiting on either of these frame types.

We appreciate your patience. We are working very hard every day to get back to being a seamless part of your supply chain.

Thank you for your business.

Scott Neal

Now Shipping Portraits!

Day 85 of 90

Friday September 5, 2008 our first customer orders were shipped from the new Chico, California location. All of our employees are very proud at what they've accomplished in the rebuilding of Paradise Pictures.

We have quite a few orders to work through and we are still completing the manufacture of domed parts and receiving the last portion of our initial bronze frame orders.

The Phase One order period is expected to continue for at least one to two weeks. Check back soon for another update.

Again, Mike, David, Lynne and I thank you for your support and encouragement during this challenging time.

Scott

Update On The Week Just Ended (8/29/08)

This week has gone very well.

The parts department worked the bugs out of a coating and firing issue - all is well now. The white parts are beautiful!

Mike reports that the color system is looking very nice so far. He has printed a number of images and they will go through a first firing most likely on Tuesday.

The digital room is up and running and the scanner is working overtime to get scans to our folks.

Yes. I can say week one was a success. When will the first product ship - don't quote me but it could be late next week!

Have a great holiday weekend and thank you for your business.

Scott Neal

Paradise Pictures is Now Ready For Orders (Phase One)

Day 69 of 90

What a long strange trip it’s been! We can’t believe it but we are ready to implement Phase One of our return to production.

Phase One Order Period

If you have orders that you’ve been saving for us, we are ready for them with one condition: we will not be able to promise our fifteen working day turnaround time in Phase One.

What does this mean?

The front end of our operations are ready. We can receive your order, we can check it in and do the image preparation necessary to ready the photograph for printing.

The back end or printing process is initially scheduled to come online later this week or early next week. We’ll start by making test images early next week. Then comes calibration to the color sets and more test images. Images will go all the way through the firing process to ensure we’ve got a handle on the color shift that naturally occurs. The goal is always to get the color as close to the original photograph as possible.

What can go wrong?

Calibration and firing setup can take longer than a few days. But, I will assure you Mike and David will do everything necessary to get the system calibrated and setup as quickly as possible.

How long will it take to get my order?

I’m going to under promise here and hopefully over deliver. We might have your order for a month to five weeks. But at the same time, don’t be surprised if we significantly beat that estimate. Like getting the plant rebuilt quickly, our goal to start shipping product is first and foremost on our minds now.

If you need orders in our standard turnaround time of fifteen working days, you may want to wait to send orders to us in Phase Two. We understand some retailers experience high demand for timely placement of stones. If you are one of those retailers, please wait for Phase Two.

A note about frames:

We are planning to offer the full line of frames presented in our catalog. They are the only items that we source outside the company. Our manufacturers have been producing our frames and have promised delivery by September 1.

A note about returned orders :

If we sent you an order back after the fire and you received a page that included a quote on one side and your order form on the other, there is a very high chance of the image prep having already been done and the image is ready to print. In this case, if you are still wanting that work to be completed by us, please send us the photograph and the quote/order form and we’ll pull it from the server and set it up for printing. We ask for the photograph to ensure we are printing the correct image. This will save time and help us deliver these orders quicker.

Order Forms and Address:

Our new address is:

Paradise Pictures, LLC
650 Thunderbolt Street
Chico, CA 95973-9025

Phone: 800-960-8040 or 530-895-9300
Fax: 530-895-9600

We have put a download file of our new order form on the right panel below our address for the link.

Thank you for your patience and support!

Scott Neal

Office Staff Returns to..... The Office!

Day 60 of 90

Tuesday August 12, the office staff returns to work. We've completed the office space portion of the building and have both servers running and the telephone system running. Phones are now live with the same 800# ringing to our new Chico numbers. See the end of this post for our new phone numbers and address.

The remainder of this week in the office we'll be testing and loading the accounting system to see how it performs. We'll be updating data that we've been accumulating and getting ready to process orders in the system.

The parts department has a goal of firing blanks by the end of the week. Spray booths are almost installed completely and dust collectors are being plumbed. Ovens are being burned in.

The digital department - what we call the room where all of your photo's are scanned, cleaned up and color corrected is complete with the installation of (now don't laugh) ... fire sprinklers.

The printing system is in process and has a few weeks to go. Then on to testing and calibration.

We are getting a lot of calls about when we can take orders. I can't say just yet - maybe as the end of the week approaches, we'll have more clarity on our status. Stay tuned.

Our new address:

Paradise Pictures, LLC
650 Thunderbolt Street
Chico, CA 95973

Our new phone numbers:

Toll free: 800-960-8040

Direct: 530-895-9300

Fax: 530-895-9600

We appreciate your business and look forward to serving you again soon.

Scott Neal

Pictures

Day 55 of 90

We've been asked for pictures - so here are few shots that I was able get without being run over by a forklift:

The Building on an average day right now - many contractors!

Painting the Image Prep Room

Carpet Done! Light install in the Image Room

From One End - the Alley - Office on the right - Parts and Imaging on the Left.

Cabinets ready for placement in the Shipping Department

As of Tuesday night, many machines and other pieces of the manufacturing process are now in place - much more to go. Telephone is close to being complete as is the network. The electricians should be done today with any luck as should be the heating and air people. Safety railings are almost done on the top of the rooms and parts are still being prepped for inventory.

If all goes well, our office staff may move to the new location Friday at which time we'll publish new local phone numbers but you can rest assured that our toll free number hasn't changed. 800-960-8040.

Our new mailing and physical delivery address is:

Paradise Pictures, LLC
650 Thunderbolt Street
Chico, CA 95973

Thanks for keeping in touch. We appreciate your business!

Scott Neal