The gift and home industry, alongside many others, is having to ride out the worldwide shipping crisis, while finding ways to offset and absorb inflated costs. GiftsandHome.net has been speaking to some of the key players in gift sector to find out how they are managing the issues.
“It’s a double whammy for us as importers,” says Gisela Graham’s sales director Piers Croke. “Firstly, a seven-fold increase in the cost of bringing the goods over here from our makers – ouch! We made our 2021 price list in January based on freight costs of 2018- 2020. Against this price list we took the bulk of our orders from customers up to April, for delivery in August to October.”
He continued: “Then in May, without warning, freight costs went stratospheric. What to do? We decided, with a gulp, to honour our January list – though we did note that one European importer unilaterally upped his prices by 9% on orders already taken.
“Secondly, there was suddenly a shortage of containers to bring the goods in – the reason in fact, for the freight cost hike. So as well as having to pay more, we importers are now having to fight to find container space.” Giving an extreme example, Piers points out: “we’ve heard that two of the big high street chains have booked containers for ELEVEN times the 2020 price ($25,000 a go) to be sure of being able to fill their Autumn/Christmas shelves.”
Piers says that the shortage of containers meant delays would be inevitable. “We ourselves have managed, touch wood, to find ways around the shortage, sending our agents around the smaller ports to ferret out where extra containers can be found. But one way or another we reckon to be able to deliver pretty well on time, although it’s going mean extra shifts in the warehouse.”
And the future? “Our guess is that freight prices are going to fall back, as the empty containers gradually make their way back from Europe and USA to the manufacturers ports. Let’s hope that’s sooner rather later!”
Top: Cranes loading.
