July 2022 Price Changes Explanation

The volatility in the price of the raw lead used in our production will continue to be reflected in our LME surcharge policy which has been in effect since 2007. This has proven to be the fairest and most transparent way to manage cost increases.
The other major raw material costs in the manufacture of adhesive lead is the acrylic adhesive used. We have had a series of increases from our supplier and although alternative lower-cost products may be available we do not believe it is right to change from a product with over 20 years of proven performance in this application.

The manufacture of lead profiles is an energy-intensive process in all areas of production from melting and forming through to the energy requirements of our curing ovens for the coating process. The continued rise in energy costs are having a significant impact.
Please note that we encourage all customers to return empty spools to both reduce costs and to minimise the environmental impact caused by the disposal of plastic reels. We offer a 18p credit for all empty spools returned. Please contact our sales office for more information.

The base film and the inks used to print with are both oil derivative materials and the continued increase in oil costs has had a serious impact on our raw material costs.

We have looked at ways to improve our efficiency in the production of coloured films – higher print runs and a reduced range is the obvious way forward. We are aware however that some customers require the broadest possible range of colours so we have taken the decision not to reduce the range at this point. We will however move to a new pricing policy where the full cost increases will be applied to the slower moving items and a reduced increase will be applied to the higher volume lines where we can improve production efficiencies.

To keep our pricing as simple as possible certain lines will be moving into higher priced “bands”. Low selling B products have moved to Band C , low selling C are now D etc.

As volumes continue to decrease in the market the cost to import rises too. This has been compounded by exceptional rises in air and sea freight costs over the last year.

With the rapidly increasing labour costs in China and glass cost rises we have also had double-digit cost increases from all our suppliers since our January 2022 List price was published.