08 September 2021

Bira Direct supplier LFI Ladders has announced an unavoidable price change on some of their products. LFI is a 4th generation family business and a leading manufacturer of aluminium, steel, timber and fibreglass access equipment in the UK.

In a letter to customers, they have said:

Dear Customers,

At LFI we pride ourselves on our relationships, with our customers and all the key members of our extensive supply chain. You will have seen numerous news articles concerning the increase in costs that are still being realised across the globe concerning raw materials, labour and transportation costs. Working closely with our suppliers, we have absorbed as much of the increased prices as possible, however this is ongoing and will likely continue throughout 2022. Rest assured, the impact we've seen has in no way been fully conveyed to our customers.

We are now in Q3 and under massive pressure with our cost base; our priority is to keep up availability of stock to our customers and so we have placed orders for materials, components, fixings and specialist other 'parts' to ensure this.

Moving into Q4 the real-world YOY on costs can be summarised simply as: Aluminium +44%, Steel +33%, Timber +25% and Labour +24%.

LFI Price Changes Q4 2021 RS

Whereas I know you'll agree our invoice rates have in no way reflected this, we do need to look to pass on an increase from October pt and there is likely to be further changes needed for Ql 2022 looking at the information we have from the raw material supply chain, all the way back to the ingot suppliers.

After weeks of calculation, we need to give notice of the following changes which will affect all customers from October 1st 2021:

  • All aluminium products (including Staging Boards) +14%
  • All  steel products+ 10%
  • Timber Pole ladders - no movement until January (current material stocks secured)
  • K8 imported GRP steps - see below

One product group that has had significant changes is K8, imported GRP steps. This is currently the only product we import from the far east and with the shipping container issues being spoken about almost daily, they've seen the biggest impact to cost. Our average increase there is well over 90%(!) and so we have had re-calculated our entire cost base to reflect this.

Whilst the shipping remains at such a premium, we will operate without margin to  help keep the flow of goods into the UK market, but  that has not been without its own issues over shipping availability of course. All customers will receive a new price for these items, outside of a simple% change, to reflect these changes.

Our final change is again unavoidable, shipping by the UK carrier network has seen increase throughout the year and will be increasing again for LFI from October, therefore we need to add a further 3% to all carrier costs. It may be small, but we operate without any margins on transport to keep the cost down as much as we can.

Many thanks for your understanding and continued support, we will keep a close eye on what's happening around the world with these costs and notify you of any significant  changes, either up or down.

Kindest regards,

Andy Ferris, Commercial Director

You can read the full letter here.

 

For more information on this Bira Direct supplier, look at LFI Ladders page.

To find out more about all the benefits of product buying for independent retail businesses, visit Bira Direct

 

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