The supply chain crisis is the worst toy brand manufacturer Exploding Kittens has ever seen, says Carly McGinnis, head of production, sales and logistics. And the problems are likely to persist for at least another year, maybe two, she says.
“It just gets worse and worse,” McGinnis says.
“I don’t know if I will ever feel good until this year is over,” she adds.
The toy brand, No. 324 in the 2021 Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000, manufactures the majority of its products in China. Once the products get on the boat, they leave the port and are shipped to Long Beach, California. There, the goods are unloaded and trucked or railed to one of its four warehouses—to Carson, Nevada, Seattle or Chicago for its wholesale merchandise or to Pennsylvania where Exploding Kittens ships its direct-to-consumer merchandise. Running smoothly, this process should take about 18-20 days from port to port, and 25 days from port to warehouse, McGinnis says
But in 2021, this has taken anywhere from 40-70 days because of delays on both ends, she says. For example, if there is a COVID-19 case in a port in China, the entire facility shuts down, leaving products stuck on boats for days or weeks.
Once the ship leaves, there is congestion on the route, and then backlogs at the destination port. With hundreds of ships just waiting to enter a port and be unloaded, Exploding Kittens has considered renting helicopters to get on the vessel just to get its merchandise out, McGinnis says.
Ultimately, Exploding Kittens did not use helicopters, but it’s paid the price for having its goods waiting on ships. One of Exploding Kittens’ wholesalers charged it a fine for missing the deadline to deliver its new game—Throw Throw Avocado—by two weeks because the games were sitting idle in a port.
How Exploding Kittens battles the supply chain crisis
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