We have been informed from a selection of our brands of their intent to increase their pricing. Inflationary pressures relating to numerous factors, the most significant being the exponential rise in the costs of raw materials and the container shipping costs out of China & Southeast Asia. Consequently, there are some important price changes coming into effect on Friday 1st October 2021.
THE REASONS BEHIND THESE PRICE CHANGES
Further increases in the cost of raw materials
The price of cotton has risen by almost 38% since September 2020. With polyester prices rising by 8% in the last year, they will continue to rise in line with the increase to the crude oil price.
The rise of freight and container costs
Surging demand for goods, plus a shortage of empty containers at Asian ports, have sent container shipping costs rocketing. Since November, the cost of shipping a 40-foot container from Asia to Europe has now risen sevenfold, from around $2,200 to over $14,000. That, alone, can add 10-15% to the cost of goods.
Garment production and the Delta variant
Garment production prices are starting to rise, due to a number of factors. COVID-19 lockdowns being imposed in manufacturing countries such as Bangladesh and China, due to the spread of the Delta variant, are causing slowdowns and even stoppages in production and deliveries in these regions. Many factories in Myanmar (Burma) have also been closed down since the military coup in February, leading to higher demands from factories in Bangladesh and China.
General inflation in the UK economy
The UK Office for National Statistics published in August that the Retail Price Index (RPI) shows that prices in the UK had risen by 3.9% in the last year.