* Forwarded from COMP.SYS.AMIGA.MISC by Stephen Walsh (3:633/280).
* Originally by: google@amigakit.us (google@amigakit.us), 27 Jun 14 05:44.
* Originally to: all.

AmigaKit.com reaches 10th birthday!

Way back in June 2004, AmigaKit opened it's doors to its first customers.  We 
are very pleased to reach the 10th
anniversary of the launch and would like to make a special thank you to all 
who has supported us through the last
decade!

It is not an easy market place to trade and there have been many challenges 
over the last 10 years.  We hope to achieve
even more for the Amiga and our customers in the next 10 years.


A Special Message To Our Long Standing Customers

There is a core group of customers worldwide that have ordered from us 
regularly since 2004 to the present day.  This
seems a good occasion to express our sincerest gratitude.  We would like to 
thank them for their orders and keeping
AmigaKit going through the good times and the more challenging times.   As a 
celebration of this event, we would ask any
of these customers to contact us if you are placing an order in the very near 
future so we can offer you a loyalty
discount on any items you may need.


A Brief History of AmigaKit

In 2004, the Amiga reseller scene was going through a lot of change,  several 
retailers across the world either closed
down or faded away.  Store website inventories were no longer being updated or 
domains being renewed, and slowly one by
one, the choice for consumers dwindled away.

AmigaKit was established as a full time business to help in some way buck the 
trend and provided a professional reliable
service to Amiga users worldwide where they can obtain their Amiga products 
and services without paying over inflated
prices in well known auction websites.  We established a full time technical 
support service to provide after sales
support and help customers with installation queries.

We started developing our own software in-house such as OS-Install, EasyNet 
and EasyADF and continue to produce software
to this day, including the new AMIStore for A-EON Technology.

In 2006, AmigaKit purchased the remaining inventory from Eyetech and the Amiga 
product range grew in size, so we moved
into new offices in Cardiff.   For the very first time, we visited the famous 
Amiwest show in California and met the
many customers there that were up to that point, just names on our system and 
not faces and personalities.  Exhibiting
at shows became a long standing tradition for us from this point.  Attending 
conventions and shows always is costly but
at the same time it is rewarding to personally speak to our customers and 
build friendships on many occasions.

In 2008, the remaining inventory of High Street Micro was also acquired.  One 
of the problems we found was that there
were no new product being manufactured so we had to re-invest our revenues 
into sponsoring hardware and software
projects and encouraging hardware development.  Several products were a result 
of this scheme including the popular
products such as the ZorRAM and MAS Player evolution.  Most recently we have 
diversified into manufacturing Amiga
joysticks such as the Arcade Evolution joystick.

In 2009, we took on another full time technician so that we had more capacity 
for Amiga repairs, servicing and in-house
hardware projects.  One of the first tasks of the year was to prepare for the 
AmigaONE X1000 project which we were only
involved in from a reseller point of view.  Later on in late 2010, our role 
changed and we had to help get the project
back on track.

By 2012, it was clear we needed a large building and the opportunity came 
around to buy a property a mile away from our
offices.  It required a lot of renovation to meet our requirements and the 
building work presented many challenges
during the six months.  Once this was complete we slowly migrated our 
operations and inventory from old building to the
new during the summer months.


What is next for the AmigaKit project?

Our business would not exist without our loyal customers, so the most 
important relationship is with all the Amiga fans
out there.  We will continue to support them with technical help and visit 
computer shows around the world putting faces
to names.

Our continued partnership with many hardware suppliers and partners will 
produce new Classic Amiga and Next Generation
Amiga projects.  If customer continue to vote with their wallets and buy these 
new products, our suppliers can continue
to expand their resources for many more new exciting products in the future.

We have already made plans and are committed to producing and sponsoring more 
software projects and working together
with other companies in the Amiga market to make the Amiga a more successful 
computer platform.   Here's to another
decade!


Messages from our business partners:

"I would like to congratulate Matthew and AmigaKit for 10 years of service to 
the Classic and Next-Generation Amiga
community. I was customer of AmigaKit and Matthew long before we became 
friends and business partners. In 2005 AmigaKit
built my first A1-XE AmigaOS 4 system and shortly after my first Pegasos II 
MorphOS system. Although I used other
suppliers, Amigakit was always my first port of call for all my Amiga spares, 
consumables and repairs. We even
collaborated on several special Classic Amiga projects which included an 
experimental multi-booting Amiga 4000 tower
system which at the time supported AmigaOS3.9, a pre-release beta version of 
AmigOS4.0 Classic and MorphOS PowerUp. In
my experience AmigaKit's service and reliability has always been first class 
and I had no hesitation in selecting
Matthew and his team when we were looking for distribution partners for the 
new AmigaONE X1000 back in 2010. All that
remains to be said is congratulation on reaching your 10th anniversary, here's 
to the next ten years. "  Trevor
Dickinson, co-founder, A-EON Technology

"AmigaKit has been a reliable partner from the very start. They don't just 
move boxes, but provide real added value with
their service. I've gotten to know the people behind AmigaKit at a number of 
Amiga shows, and I also met their families.
We've always had a great time, and I'm looking forward to more meetings and 
continued solid business. Here's to the next
ten years!" Jens Schoenfeld, Individual Computers

"E3B has been in business relationship with Amigakit now for over five years 
now. Several projects, like the ZorRAM or
the new PRISMA sound card, were developped and produced in close cooperation, 
always with the goal in mind to get
customer tailor made solutions for the Amiga community.  Of course, things 
were not always easy, and working together
while being separated by some thousand kilometers, with beta tester sitting 
all around the world, can be demanding - all
project so far did suceed, and this seems to prove we are on the right way.  
We hope to continue this relationship also
for the future and congratulate for 10 years in business!"  Michael Boehmer, 
E3B




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