Post Covid-19: A brave new world? By Andrew Brown, Sales Director, Doncaster At the same time, our logistics providers are facing a serious shortage of drivers, putting up wages and therefore cost at an unsustainable rate. One thing is for sure, all our weekly shops will be rising in price by £15 to £20 per week – not good news for a nation with many of its population already reliant on food banks to make ends meet.
Had you been walking down a street in May 1945 and asked the average man or woman if the carnage of the last six years would lead to massive and irreversible changes in society, the chances are they wouldn’t be able to tell you. Twenty years on, historians would point to massive social change; the NHS, nationalisation, the cold war, a nuclear arms race and much more. As we hopefully reach the end of the pandemic, we could ask the same question... and again only history will tell.
At Gray & Adams, we are not immune from these global storms. Demands for our products are unprecedentedly high... but so is the pressure on raw material prices necessary to produce the product at our manufacturing sites. We face many difficult challenges and decisions over the coming months, but rest assured we will work closely with our customers to meet these new challenges and try to navigate this new world together.
However, we live in unprecedented times. Covid-19, Brexit, the disruption of global trade and a tilt in the balance of power to the east have all combined to create the perfect storm. Whether its cement for your patio, fence posts for your boundary or microchips for manufacturing, it seems everything is in short supply. The combined result is a massive hike in prices and inflationary pressures not seen in the world since the late 1970’s. In the automotive sector, we watch aghast as raw material prices rocket on a daily basis. Long term price security is a distant memory. As steel, aluminium and other related prices spiral out of control, one does not dare to think what will happen when currently dormant giants like Boeing and Airbus fire back into life and add more demand to the already overstretched material supply industry.
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