Campers face stock shortages and rising prices in 2022, manufacturer warns
Campers could face another year of limited stock and rising prices in 2022, a leading outdoor brand has warned.
A shortage of shipping containers and courier drivers is delaying the arrival in the UK of camping products and outdoor essentials, according to Olpro.
It was revealed earlier in 2021 that Britain was facing a tent shortage caused by a “perfect storm” of Covid, Brexit and the huge global demand for camping equipment.
Manufacturers struggled to get new stock into shops and as a result some customers faced long delays in having their orders supplied, post-lockdown.
Demand for tents and outdoor gear has never been higher, with the restrictions on foreign travel encouraging more people than ever to turn to camping for their summer holidays.
Most camping equipment is made in the Far East and as a result of pandemic-related factory shutdowns and worker shortages, production has been dramatically curtailed over the last year.
The cost of manufacturing has also rocketed. Olpro said containers typically cost around £1,500 each, but during 2021, soaring demand meant prices went up to £8,000 per container.
The delays caused by the lack of containers are continuing to severely affect the arrival of products and Olpro Managing Director, Daniel Walton, said they wouldn't ease soon.
We've received nearly half a million pounds worth of stock less than we expected at this point in the year, which is a huge disappointment for a business like ours.
Last year we were able to achieve a turnover of £3.2million, so to have missed out on such a large amount of stock is definitely worrying.
In some instances, the delays on shipping for our products have been so severe that we’ve had to pay roughly £200 per product to get them flown over by air instead.
Some of our customers had pre-ordered their products at the end of 2020 and their products still haven’t arrived - we’re just as frustrated by the delays as they are. It’s just been an incredibly difficult year for logistics.
Since June, we’ve been forced to introduce an entirely new system for pre-orders, so customers are only able to pre-order a product once we know it’s manufactured and it’s confirmed to be on the way from our factories.
However, the issue we can’t work our way around is the shortage of containers and drivers available, and unfortunately this means we expect 2022 to be another year of limited stock and rising prices for our customers.
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