High increases in raw materials

It has been a challenging time for nearly all businesses in the Sports trade. Post-pandemic has seen peaks and troughs with some benefits of surges being seen after pent-up demand.

As manufacturers, two of the most impactful issues; post Brexit and the pandemic have seen high increases in raw material costs and this was only compounded by a huge shortage of supply and elongated supply chain delays.

We would have all expected these issues to lessen as the pandemic became less impactful to our daily lives, however, the events in Ukraine have meant costs have only continued to rise further as much of the world has to deal with resourcing certain vital materials and energy costs - increases at levels not before witnessed.

These increases have been compounded again by the welcomed progress of quality of life, but ill-timed large hikes in the living wage rates and a desire to do the right thing by staff, results in some hefty and very much unprecedented labour increases in the past few years.

All in all, this has resulted in higher prices across the marketplace, with the end user seeing large increases in cost alongside suppliers and manufacturers also losing out with a drop in margin.

There has been a lot of challenges and these will continue with high inflation, but we will adapt and succeed. We are always looking to try and do the right thing for consumers, clients and staff alike.