Next week (starting Nov. 19th), our product prices will be increasing by 5%. As you might know from our previous posts, we were largely able to protect you from supplier price increases in the past – or at least compensate them for most of our products. So, what are the reasons for the current increase?
The reason for the increase is not the higher cotton price, which actually levelled out at a little this year. Production and transport costs have further increased, and so have the expenses for compliance and quality management. Manufacturers have set higher prices for increased wage levels and energy costs, as well as for investments in quality standards and certifications of the manufacturing processes. As I have mentioned in previous posts concerning this topic, those are expenses that we generally support since they raise social standards – and all of us profit in the end from better quality.
When it comes to the transport prices, we can see a similar situation as in 2008: A lot of shipping companies have decreased their loading capacity and increased their prices for container transport from the Far East by 400%. Now clients have to pay up to $2400 for shipping a 20‘ container to Europe. Unfortunately, those are costs that we have to bear, too.
We want to continue offering you and your customers a wide variety. This is why we’ve decided not to increase individual product prices exorbitantly, but rather to increase the prices of all products by 5 %. As before, we’ll round our prices to the nearest round 10 pence. This means you might have to check your prices after the increase at the end of next week
Due to the high number of products being changed in price and our cache, there might be some temporary irregularities. All changes should be finished at the end of next week.
There are a few products which will not be increased in price. Check the forum for further information on which products this will be.
