Vinegar Syndrome is growing and expanding (1 Viewer)

[titch]

Been a while since one of those "Isn't physical media dead ?" threads got resuscitated. Vinegar Syndrome sent an email yesterday, where they proudly announced moving to a larger building, in order to facilitate their growing business.

Confirms that boutique physical media firms, who sell curated and well-packaged cult films, at a premium price, are doing very well.

In 2021, we purchased a building in Aurora, Colorado, to improve our shipping and warehousing infrastructure while saving money shipping packages to the West Coast. We staffed it with a fantastic group of passionate and talented warehouse members, which allowed us to continue expanding our operations and product offerings while keeping ship times low and customer satisfaction high. For reasons addressed below, we have decided to close our Colorado warehouse, and last month, our dedicated crew shipped their final package. Our entire organization is incredibly grateful for what they've built over the years, and we are thrilled that a few of them will continue with us in our next major step in continued growth! We are beyond excited to announce the purchase of a 120,000-square-foot building in Meriden, Connecticut, that will serve as the new Vinegar Syndrome HQ. With approximately 70,000 square feet of space dedicated to warehousing and shipping, we are increasing our current warehousing footprint by a factor of 5. This will mean a single shipping location for all domestic and international orders, cutting down on processing and handling times and decreasing shipping bottlenecks during our more significant sales events.

Construction at our new warehouse in Meriden, CT​

This additional space is also imperative for our growing business, including our consistently expanding network of Partner Labels with OCN Distribution and the increased output of Mélusine. Simply put, Vinegar Syndrome has outgrown our existing two warehouses, and this move allows for more discs, more merch printed in-house via VS Press, and an upcoming relaunch of our publishing division, which we are eager to share more about in the coming months. The new building will also be home to our offices, restoration suites, and, of course, our ever-expanding archive of motion picture film, which will be housed in a subterranean film vault that is currently under construction - more info on this to come! We plan to begin shipping orders out of this new location in early 2025 and will share updates as we proceed. For customers of our retail store, The Archive in Aurora, we will continue normal operations at the 1431 Dayton Street location through September. We will have some additional news to share shortly about our future retail location in Denver! Regarding our Bridgeport location of The Archive, this location will remain open for the foreseeable future, but stay tuned for exciting updates in 2025!! ~Team VS The Colorado Crew!​

 

[Stephen_J_H]

The thing I really appreciate about VS is their expansion outside of genre and exploitation, via partner labels and the Cinematographe line. It's always good when lesser-seen films outside of genre and exploitation get treated well.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

They’re doing a great job showing how a “right sized” physical media business can survive in an environment where it’s a niche rather than mainstream product.

VS is doing the smart things that a company of its type needs to do to survive and thrive. They’re operating as a mostly direct-to-consumer business, rather than trying to distribute their product through mass market retailers that don’t have demand for it. This allows them to hold the line on pricing so they can charge what it actually costs to produce their products, rather than getting stuck in a death spiral of race to the bottom sale pricing that turns each unit sold into a loss. They’re producing smaller qualities that match market demand, so they’re not stuck with excess inventory that’s expensive to warehouse or that needs to be liquidated, devaluing the product. They’re mostly eschewing hard and firm street dates in favor of preorders and shipping product on a rolling basis rather than using limited resources to hit an arbitrary date. And, in part and parcel with all of the above, they’re conditioning their customers to purchase the items they want as they become available instead of training those customers to wait for sale pricing months or years later.

I think they’re doing a fantastic job showing how to survive and thrive in a changing marketplace and I continue to wish them success.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Even though I’ve only bought a couple of titles through VS, they’re one of the boutique labels I recommend.

 

[Carl David]

This looks like a wise decision that hopefully will prove to be fruitful for them.

Didn't even know they got to the size they are currently at now to be honest.

Already owning a building for their operation is impressive enough in the physical media market but now expanding to a bigger headquarters?

And they have their own disc pressing machine?

Wow!!!

I don't actually think I have yet purchased a VS disc so will have to change that at some point soon. I am sure they will have at least 1 title which would be a welcome addition to my collection.

However, have seen over the last couple of years their choice of titles released and they have done a marvelous job of building their own unique brand via selecting titles that no other label would even have considered.

Clearly, they filled a gap in the market and long may it continue for them.

This move should allow the company to release future products in larger quantities driving down costs which will also allow for cheaper retail prices which should ultimately create higher demand.

A smart move in my opinion.

Will watch their progress with interest.

Best of luck to them.