We had our first Business radio licence issued in 1980 with the purchase of Icom IC-H16 - one of the first radios that could be programmed with crystals - a major jumping point in technology. I also got my  Amateur Radio callsign G4RMT - and while not active in ham radio very much now, have been involved  with radios since then. Our business centred on communications for theatre and  entertainment so short-term hire and small repeater systems were our  normal work areas. The entertainment and  events industry was doing very well until 2020, when it collapsed but the radio side of the business carried on. We have a local area community repeater that remains active and it seemed prudent to expand our  range of radio equipment.

Clearly, the price of radio equipment has dropped enormously over the years. A £300 radio in the 80's was a huge investment, and radios that offers more features and smaller sizes are now less than £100 imported from the  factories abroad. Our stock of Kenwood hire radios had steady grown over the years, and some in regular use, with some Icoms does show the lifespan of the equipment in a good light. The real  issue for users and dealers is the shelf life of products. Manufacturers update and change models so quickly it's difficult to keep up.

In our audio business we discovered the exact same thing and started to source soon to be discontinued, or already discontinued stock from around the world. Mexico, America and of course China have been sources of stock for some time now, and it seemed likely that we could source old models and factory over production if we looked hard. It worked well, although supply times are crazily flexible. Since Covid, air freight has rapidly increased in price and worse, time-scales. Cheaper freight gets bumped in favour of people  who have paid more. On expensive PA amplifiers it can be absorbed, but a £60 retail price  radio  that has an £80 freight charge is unrealistic. We've been careful and prudent and  can bring in excellent radios from a number of countries that we can sell for value for money. We make very little on each individual radio we sell, but we manage. All the products in our portfolio are ones that we use ourselves or have used in the past. A few products we reject from further purchases simply because they are difficult to use - and while battered and dented, many of these do well in our hire stock where the controls are usually locked to  prevent hire customers fiddling. This is where we find the odd product that was badly marketed. A business radio that is ideal for hams to use, but far too complicated for the guys at the local ship yard! Have a look at what we have to offer - there are some gems of a product. Youtube is  great - and you can find user reviews of most of these radios - sometimes even done by people who know what they're talking about!

Best wishes

Paul