Unprecedented Price Pressure
Hi everyone, as you are all aware our industry is being hit extremely hard with huge and regular price increases.
As a result of recent increases in the cost of waste paper and exceptionally high energy costs we must once again increase our prices.
Prices were increased to CALCO by mills and suppliers in August & September. They are now going again on November 8th.
The levels are unprecedented. There will now be a 10% Increase along with an energy surcharge of 7.5%.
The reality is we will be increasing our prices by 17.5% for deliveries on or after 8th November.
The hope is the surcharge will be lifted in time but personally I cannot see this happening for 4-6 months.
We have done all we can to minimise this (some board suppliers going up by 26.5% to us after a 12.5% increase in September!!!) and also a standard email below which is the SECOND time in 3 months from our main supplier.
There are also severe shortages of paper (in particular box board / greetings card types) with mill lead times now out to February & March! There are strong rumours of further increases in January.
My suggestion is we let things run up till Christmas, keep on top of stocks and then we look at introducing some new grades once we have more stability in the market.
It really is a strange time we are in but let’s keep talking and finding solutions to your jobs.
Regards
Stephen Callaghan