Panic in the curtains business as clothing prices shoot up

The price of cotton has increased as much as 60% - 80% since 2010 July and keep moving to increase in price due to shortages caused by lower inventories being held during the worldwide recession and this year’s crop again being affected by inconsistent weather and mis-timely rain in China, Pakistan and India who in a combination supply almost 50 percent of the global textiles.
Few professionals in industry have predicted that polyester production may not hold up with demand for almost two years. This has been combined with a more than predicted increase in demand not only from the USA as it climbs out of global recession but also from the local demands in the Far East. The rate of polyester has also increased swiftly in the last couple of weeks with raise of 30% - 40% on raw materials with experts accepting that this upward trend in rates is set to continue for the upcoming months. The knock on effect of this has been fright ordering in the markets and many
clothing companies have actually stopped fabrication this month. The condition is so unbalanced at the time being that we have been informed by one of the trustworthy manufacturers that they anticipate 60% of the weaving factories to have stopped up production by the month end.
The larger businesses like NEXT are also disturbed to rising prices and have released to customers that 2011 will be having a rate increase in all of their clothing. A regular shopper in Primark recently told me that a shirt which cost £4 in January 2010 is priced at £7 in 2011 April. This is really a 75% hike in market price!
Andy Ryman, Director of one of the UK’s biggest online curtains and cushions store, recently accepted in a meeting that since Jan 2011 they have been growing their textile associated retail prices by 15% - 35%. Of course you’ll think this is a massive increment in outlays. When queried if sales have been up down, the reaction was, “Yes definitely, take a look on these curtains and cushions for paradigm, we previously retailed the cushions for only 5 euro per cover. Now the costs are £9 with a massive fall in profit to sustain value for our clients. This has really affected sales during all our channels and we are fortunate to be diversifying into earlier industries outside of textiles to go on. Many organizations without this peripherals benefits will undoubtedly suffer. Consumers now only pay money for what they need and cart totals are noticeably low on our website. Persons are not purchasing accessories such as tie backs to convey their curtains without thought, now it’s become a luxury to have them with your curtains!”

Going for a walk around in one of the stock-rooms I couldn’t restrain myself but noticed the empty racks; which was briefed by Andy, that these are a end result of producers in China who are ignoring to send the goods in view of higher prices in future, although they had stocks available for direct dispatch. For example she told “These cushions and tie backs manufactured from cotton have been the most demanding range in terms of quantity, now we are not even able to prove any orders because of deficiency in supply”.
Polyester and cotton is quickly growing as a commodity like gold; who would have ever predicted that!

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About the author

Working with the designing trade to distribute the current news and highlights with up-to-date data and analysis.February to June is ‘Focus on Soft Furnishings’, which implies I shall be working on trades specialising in Curtains, bedding and accessories including Cushions and Tie Backs.

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