Stern has to cover a massive increase in new high end design and engineering staff plus extra management , then throw in the research and development costs of the completely new SPIKETM system plus a new factory which is three times the size with 3 production lines instead of one. An increase was inevitable unfortunately.

The machines are a lot better so we have that as a bonus.

Yeh... im not seeing the logic here.

I thought STERN machines were rock solid already... cop an absolute flogging at Timezone etc etc etc.. all without fault. So why change it?
Massive increase in new high end design and engineering.. see above comment.
R&D.. see above comment.
Extra management?... why?... management don't make anything, they push paper so we have extra levels of bureaucracy?
A new factory 3X the size of the old..... maybe they need the extra management to explain that if your production is not ready for a space 3X the size, you don't buy/ lease it?

So bottom line is that STERN have calculated that they can increase production to an extent where a much larger factory is required... but the shortfall of that is that the end product will cost more?

The company obviously should not have expanded... simple.