Toy prices will go up before Christmas, the owner of a company U.K Toy companies have issued warnings because the cost of delays and shortages will affect shoppers’ pockets.
Joel Berkowitz, director of the London Toy Company, said that as companies try to reduce some of the costs of shipping items to the UK, parents may face more gifts this year, and these costs are sharp during the global pandemic. rise.
“This Christmas toys will be more expensive if they are in stock,” Mr. Berkowitz told PA.
“We are severely affected by the shortage. We have customers who want to place orders now, but we are unable to deliver them.
“One of our clients is Amazon They placed a big order this morning, but we were unable to complete it, so it is killing our business. This is a complete mess. “
Problems began to appear in the ports of major manufacturing countries, such as China People in the toy industry explained that in the absence of empty containers, this is a sequelae of the global trade shutdown during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company must now wait at least three weeks to obtain a container, and then the price of the goods shipped is eight times the normal price.
congestion In British ports, the lack of HGV drivers to transport goods to the warehouse caused further delays.
Since it is calculated based on manufacturing and transportation costs, the company is expected to pay higher taxes on imported goods.
Mr. Bercowitz said: “In any year, we will bring about 30 containers, and the previous cost was about 30,000 pounds. This year we will spend 150,000 pounds and more.
“Then, even if they arrived here, we were cited as delaying three weeks to allow trucks to transport them from the port to our warehouse.
“This is a complete chain reaction that affects every part of the transportation process. And the situation will only get worse,” he added.
“There are two things that can help now, and that is government Port workers and heavy truck drivers from Europe are allowed to work freely here.
“Then they need to have serious discussions about the transportation process and the companies that operate it. These companies are called cartels.”
Mr. Bercowitz said that the new products they developed this year, such as the electric underground train that will be sold at the London Transport Museum, may now cost around £50 instead of the originally planned £35-40.
Nadim Ednan-Laperouse, founder and owner of UK-based WOW Toys, said: “We have been doing this for 25 years, and the current situation is unprecedented, which will mean that toy retail prices will rise Christmas and beyond.
“Although the situation of HGV drivers is a problem in the UK, everything else is a global problem.
“The biggest problem is the routes. These routes are operated by a few companies such as COSCO and Maersk. They have increased their prices significantly because they are completely free to control.
“For us, the cost of a container is approximately US$2,300, and now it is US$20,000.
“The result will be massive inflation around the world. So I don’t understand why the government, including the UK, doesn’t put pressure on them.”
