A survey of industry by Emplas reveals that 66% of respondents expect further price increases from their suppliers before the summer is out.
Carried out this month [July] against the backdrop of continuing inflation, energy and fuel prices as well as rising labour costs, only 34% of those polled expected to escape cost increases from their suppliers.
Jody Vincent, Sales Director, Emplas said it appeared many companies were resigned to rising costs.
“Every supply chain is under pressure at every level and there appears that a lot of people are resigned to price increases”, he said.
“We’ve pressed our supply chain very hard to do what they can to hold prices. Our scale is helpful in doing that.
“Despite this we’ve still had to take our fair share of increases since this year but have been working hard to hold our prices to our customers and will continue to hold them as long as we can sustainably.”
Emplas has invested significantly to drive efficiencies throughout its operation during this period, including a redesign of its factory floor; investment in its fleet; and an ambitious factory floor leadership programme.
Combined, this has contributed to year-on-year efficiency gains of between 12 and 15% across its business – a saving which has been passed directly to its customers in the form of a price freeze since February.
“Costs to our customers are going up, people product, everything costs more, and although the market has performed strongly in the first half of the year, it is inevitably down on where we were previously”, Jody continued.
“That is going to put pressure on installers in the second half of this year.
“Holding our prices despite increases from our supply chain, on the strength of the efficiencies that we have gained has delivered a very real contribution to our customers’ profitability so far this year.
“We’ll continue to look for those operational gains as we move forward and as long as we can do so without compromising our own profitability or the stability of our business.”
