Price increases and an explanation

We have replied to a customer's feedback today, and in case others have similar reservations we thought it right to put out this information on currently increased costs on items such as masks and sanitiser products.

Due to the ongoing volatility of some critical styles such as masks, disposable gloves, disposable suits, goggles etc, we have had to temporarily amend pricing on an almost daily basis.

The reason for these temporary changes is that factories are struggling with the supply of material, shortages of workers and lack of production capacity. For example, Face masks have increased between 5 to 10-fold. In addition, due to unprecedented demand we are flying in stock, the cost of which has increased 3-fold in price during the last few weeks.

I can 100% guarantee you as the business owner of a 16 year old ethical PPE company, we are not making a huge profit from these products. We have reduced our margins on all our available respiratory products to try and ease the pricing issues that is happening due to the above information I have given you.

Thankfully 98% of our online product prices have NOT changed in the past 8 weeks.

A good example is in January, we were supplying some of our customers P2 masks @ £1.62 each. This product would arrive from manufacturer in China via 8-12 weeks of shipping transport. Since February, the factories either do not have the material/stock or have significantly increased the cost price of the product. In addition, the demand in the UK is not going to cope with 8-12 weeks shipping time and need the goods immediately. By air freighting goods in a few days, the shipping costs easily push the overall cost of the product towards ten fold increase. That actual mask @ £1.62 is not currently available, so our best option TODAY is @ £5.09 each. In 10 days time we will have another model @ £3.25.

We are seeing a huge percentage of PPE including masks in the UK marketplace, which do not adhere to UK conformity, although these prices are not exactly cheap it is clearly muddying the marketplace with unethical products with fake certifications.

We have explained this to all our current customers when discussing supply and they have been very understanding, plus as I say we have taken the decision to massively reduce our margins to help ease the situation.

Our masks stocks due in at end of June, we are bringing in to the UK by rail, which is hugely quicker than sea and not a lot of difference in transport costs, so we expect to see a drop of 40% in selling price to the customer.

A good example of our ethics is we have always supplied sanitiser for the last 16 years. In February the raw material costs pushed the cost price up of sanitser to almost 500% increase. This again was explained to our buyers, but the cost price is now coming back down with more raw materials being available. Today will be our 5th price drop in 5 weeks to reflect that.

I can 100% guarantee our business ethics is not driven by making huge profits from this crisis, and hope my explanation goes some way to alleviate this.

As an ethical business we have repeatedly over the last three months donated numerous amounts of PPE/Sanitisers to care homes, NHS, care workers and vulnerable families to try and assist where we are able.

I am happy to answer any questions and feel free to email me direct at alex@misupplies.co.uk

My family and MI team wish you all the best during this current period, and hugely thank you for your business.

Alex Ingham - Managing Director