We do not want to get into political comments whether leaving Europe is the right thing or not. Fact is the UK have voted and we will leave at some point in the next 2 years, with Article 50 likely to be implemented early in 2017. Why comment at all then? The issue that effect most UK businesses at this time is the collapse in the £ to the US$ having moved from $1.50 as the polls closed to be around $1.227 as i write. This is a drop of around 18% and will make a huge impact on the price of goods imported into the UK. Currently most, if not all, balls are manufactured in Asia, be it China, Japan, India et al and most importers pay for their goods in US dollars. It is obvious then that there will be big price increases for stock arriving for 2017. We have already seen many new price lists being issued for 2017 and some of these show rises between 10% and 17%. Retailers will inevitably have to put their retail prices up at some point over the next few months, as most will not be able to continue in business and take this hit directly. So, given there will be price rises for 2017, the savvy clubs are looking to buy their club balls earlier than usual to ensure they get at 2016 prices. We have a large quantity of balls including cricket, football, rugby and basketball at 2016 prices and can offer these from stock with super fast delivery. We have even been able to secure some clearance stock to ensure we can offer even better value where we can. One such offer is the Mitre Vandis 10 ball pack with a bag in size 4 @ £88.99. These are offered whilst stocks last and are already proving popular. This is one way for clubs to beat the price rises and get even better value for their clubs. Competition is likely to be fierce with some retailers holding off the increases for as long as possible but, we saw this week with Unilever and Tesco with Marmite-gate, that it is already having a huge impact on manufacturers and the price rise will need to be passed on to the consumer. So, our advice is to buy now at 2016 prices and do not get hurt by the big price rises due early in 2017.
