With A Little Trepidation

Around about now the atmosphere is a little like Christmas here at Epic HQ. It’s not snowing and we haven’t put up a tree, it’s the expectation of things to come, will our hopes and dreams be realised or dashed.

Cast your mind back, in my case 40 years or so, to mid-December when you about say ten, you have dropped all the subtle hints to Mum and Dad about what you would like “Father Christmas” to bring you this year, but it’s not until you finally open the bright sparkly packages that you know for sure if they took any notice.

Will it be all singing all dancing latest must-have thing or socks again?

That’s the feeling we have when our NEW items are nearing completion and almost ready to set off for the UK. We have all been looking at the chemical plans and video’s supplied by our testing team in China, scrutinising every burst, making sure the shots are the correct speed, height, colour, and effects as per our instructions.

We (touch wood) have never been let down by the factories in China, only dealing with the most reputable suppliers for over twenty years, but it is not until we get the message, it’s ready for final testing, that Jimmy will be whizzing off back to the Far East for a final inspection, selecting the items for testing at random (learning some time ago the nature of business, and how things work in China). Once testing, classification, and British standards certificates have been issued, we give the final go-ahead to load up the huge ISO containers.

After being advised our fireworks are loaded on to the cargo ships, and ready to go, a tense couple of weeks follow. Using our online marine traffic tracking system to follow the progress of our cargo ships, checking weather reports and getting regular updates of progress from our shipping company, the day finally arrives when we get the phone call to confirm that all is well and our containers full of top quality pyro are sat on the dock awaiting collection. Timing, unfortunately, is not being very specific due to changing weather conditions, dock operations and other factors that are out of our control. But, more often than not the call comes around 3am.

Then it’s a mad dash down south with a fleet of 40 foot HGV’s and the “Epic Ninja’s”, collect our goods and transport them to our MASSIVE underground storage bunkers. It’s all go for the first few days as Mexon (team leader) and his team arranged the fireworks into their respective places of storage and runs through his rigorous safety checks and general housekeeping in accordance with regulations.

Items will be selected for our “testing night” once the goods have arrived. This is always a popular event, getting hundreds of requests annually as to “where and when” it will be held. The tension is even higher than usual this year due to a large number of new products, never seen in the UK before.

So far, since we have been in the business of fireworks all has gone well. However, although we know in our heart of hearts that there are unlikely to be any problems (taking every possible precaution to be one step ahead) we still get a tiny bit apprehensive and possibly a little stressed awaiting their arrival. However, it will all be worth the sleepless nights, when our smiling customers leave with the latest “must have” items such as the NEW Sidewinder, Diamond Salute, Bunker Buster and the array of other fantastic new fireworks we can’t wait to try out ourselves.

We will, of course, keep you all updated. “Watch this space” as they say :)