If you haven't heard already

[tonypep]

Get ready for some serious price increases. Phthalate based plasticizers and Iodine are being gobbled up by other much larger industries and are now in short supply. Ink and chemical companies are forced to either discontinue certain products to narrow their product line or face price increases up to 300% for their raw materials or both.
So expect to see a significant price increase in some plastisols and reclaim chemistry.
One of the exciting and pleasurable aspects of being the end users of these products is that we seem to be exempt from the "pass it on" concept of economics. So don't any of us dare to think of raising our prices!

[SkylinePrints]

you sure do know how to start my morning off with a bang.  thanks for the info.

[mk162]

well, looks like I'll be ordering some ink today.  good thing is, I am only low on 1 color.

I think I have over 20 gallons of white and 10 gallons of black floating around this joint.  I'm set on those until they ban plastisol altogether. 

[mjrprint]

Just got an email yesterday Wilflex is not going to produce their classic line of inks anymore.

[squeegee]

One of the exciting and pleasurable aspects of being the end users of these products is that we seem to be exempt from the "pass it on" concept of economics. So don't any of us dare to think of raising our prices!

Why do you say that, or is that just complete sarcasm? 

I mean sooner or later you have to pass it along, right?  If we don't, then we all get paid even less for our hard work.

Anyone care to share their thoughts on this?

[tonypep]

It's just the age old gripe that the raw materials suppliers raise their price, the chemical mfgrs raise theirs in turn, the distributors raise theirs, and when the end users (us) raise ours everyone gets indignant and tries to find someone cheaper. We just turned down a large contract order because we "couldn't sharpen our pencils" and help them out due to the cotton price increase. It seems that we bear the brunt of everyone elses burdens sometimes. Not sure why that is but tell me it isn't so. I'm sure some have been able to pass price increases along but for the contract printers I have to believe it ain't so.
Sorry for the sarcasm it was early and caffeine hadn't set in.

[blue moon]

It's just the age old gripe that the raw materials suppliers raise their price, the chemical mfgrs raise theirs in turn, the distributors raise theirs, and when the end users (us) raise ours everyone gets indignant and tries to find someone cheaper. We just turned down a large contract order because we "couldn't sharpen our pencils" and help them out due to the cotton price increase. It seems that we bear the brunt of everyone elses burdens sometimes. Not sure why that is but tell me it isn't so. I'm sure some have been able to pass price increases along but for the contract printers I have to believe it ain't so.
Sorry for the sarcasm it was early and caffeine hadn't set in.

I think the reality is manufacturers can not go and get the components some place else as it might make the ink behave different. They are locked in with particular components and do not have a choice. Ppl buying screenprinting can always go some place else and get it cheaper. The final product might look different, but the end user will never know. If your ink changed color, you would notice.

This also describes the relationship you should have with your customers. If they can not go any place else, they will pay the higher price. What are you doing to lock that customer in for life?

pierre

[inkman996]

The best scenario is if all printers across the board increase pricing accordingly, unfortunately as we all know there will always be the ones that survive on undercutting and using sub par materials.

[Frog]

This situation begs the question, how much money in ink goes on an average shirt anyway?
Even if ink doubled, would it add more than a few cents to the finished product?

Obviously, on those printing by the thousands or ten thousands, the margins are a lot smaller than with folks like me typically printing twelve dozen or less.

[Clark]

Right frog.  It will hit the guys that make money by the cents per piece and not by dollars.  If it happens, it will hit me hard I'm afraid. Luckily I have been moving into doing more retail work..hopefully that will offset some of this.  Hell, maybe I'll just move to all water-based.  That's all we will be able to print in a few years anyway.

Say for a full front, 6 colors with a good amount of coverage you are at $.08 per shirt.  Now if you double or triple that and you are only getting $.80 to start with..it's a big problem.

[Frog]

At least, most of the players who have the smallest margins are all together in the same boat. So you will probably see two trends:
Almost everyone's price go up similarly, and/or an increased effort to streamline and lean operations. Maybe those $.08 are being piddled away elsewhere in many shops.

[squeegee]

I definately agree Pierre about providing a service which is very difficult to match, and hope to keep customers "locked in", that's the name of the game for me.

No worries about sarcasm, I'm all about some sarcasm on stuff like this.  And yea, the main concern for me here is the morons that do nothing to their prices in the wake of cotton increases, ink increases, "general cost of most everything" increases.  It can drive down profits for everyone if you have a competitor that's still charging the same price as two years ago, I mean if one chooses to be competative regardless.  Normally I do not negotiate my prices, but occasionally I get the "can you match this" angle, and when I see what some idiots are still charging, it really makes me wonder if some even look at their costs. 

As to ink and chemicals, well there's a yearly figure I look at for this stuff, and depending on how much it increases, I would have to offset that in my printing charges or "other" place, hopefully it's not so signifigant when looking at it as a whole spread across a year's worth of work.  I guess it could be worth evaluating quarterly if the costs skyrocket as projected.

[Fresh Baked Printing]

No matter if it's rising cotton prices, plastisol ingredients or whatever, it initially seems like the sky is falling but then we tweak our prices a few cent here, a few cents there and we claw back some of the nickel and dimeing and after a short period of possibly being undercut by other printers, we eventually all get in the same ballpark. Am I being too optimistic?

I get challenged each month by people who say something like 'Well, so-and-so did them last year for cheaper, why can't you do it cheaper or at least match them?".
To paraphrase my response, "Well if they're so great and cheap, why aren't you using them again?".

What I need to be challenging my suppliers with, is how can I get my supplies cheaper. I know not every printer pays the same for ink or emulsion (right?), just like I get amazingly cheap ship rates which adds to my bottom line.