Hi there.
With respect, that's a bit unfair to Tim.
A great deal has happened in the last year or so - as has been well explained to date. Tim is key part of our present and our future and I'm really glad to have him at the helm. Being CEO is a hard job, and its a realm in which 'talk is cheap' (including armchair criticism). I can fully understand the psychological motivation to undertake that armchair criticism, to be clear ... I really can!
However, from where I sit, its not actually all that helpful (or all that fair to Tim).
The factory is capable of decent upscaling "as is" - at a scaling level appropriate to the point at which we currently find ourselves - as has all been previously laid out in multiple releases to the market.
But as to 'when' we undertake that upscaling in earnest - that goes directly to the end of your last sentence:
"...concentrate on building and selling batteries"
Now: I can only agree with that mission
Build and Sell Batteries? Yes, indeed.
A subtle and important addendum is this:
"... In That Order"
To elaborate: 'Building' and 'Selling' are, in practical terms, going to be more likely to happen from this point (in my personal view) sequentially rather than in parallel.
In other words, given how we got here, I think that we need to have built enough new stock to have caught up with backorders and to have (then) built up some reasonable 'stock on hand' in a few countries before we can bring home substantial (new) bacon in respect of the 'sell' part.
Thats simply because people generally prefer to buy stuff - especially where that stuff is a unique device versus 'just another Lithium battery'... with a past history of production problems - when they know that what they want to buy is 'now in stock', not 'coming soon'.
Batteries are being built in the factory and being tested and shipped... and right now they are being delivered to close out those backorders - on the rational basis that your first obligation is to your existing customers (in almost any business).
I am very much looking forward to the point when we have done that, and where we have then built up some reasonable stocks of batteries sitting 'in country' / 'in stock' both here in Australia as well as in a few other relevant spots around the world.
That is exactly where we're heading (still).
Unlike software startups, this has to be done the hard way - by making real physical things, testing them, packing them, shipping them (as in - on actual ships) and having those ships turn up in other countries, clear customs, and delivered to physical destinations. This takes actual time to happen - its not just a download.
One particular container full of shiny new Redflow batteries is on the water now, and it has come most of the way to one customer whose interests are dear to my own heart and mind - me - to fill out my big system @ Base64 in Adelaide. Yay.
I've been waiting a while for that, because I (voluntarily) gave away my Base64 battery backorder as a (paying, list price) customer, to give preference to Redflow closing out other customer backorders ahead of mine.
The need - the painful, expensive, and (in my view) absolutely and unavoidably necessary need to have closed out the Flex story and fired up in Thailand, means that we have (as I see it) unavoidably burned the bridge about 'coming soon' for people contemplating new orders this time around.
I believe that our best shot at building a new sales funnel effectively comes from selling stock to new customers that those customers can see - physically see - stacked up in Australia waiting for their order to come in.
That said, this is a balancing act - we are also not spending shareholders invested funds (including my own) wisely if we over-produce and hence stack thousands of batteries up, unsold, ahead of demand, either.
Its genuinely a balancing act - and because of material, staff and transport lead times, its a very difficult balancing act - in terms of the matching of supply and demand.
We have some confidence here, built from the last few years, that we absolutely can sell our unique product, at the price we charge for it today, to customers with appropriate applications for it, and who value the outcome it achieves, today.
I've never felt more confident in the product we're making, and in our capacity to make it. Its hard to over-state how important that is (to me, at least). I am also strongly of the view that (given our history) - quality matters more than quality in the immediate term, too.
The need for patience? Well, that's clearly harder for us all - but in my view it is also just 'how it is'.
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