Dear Sophie
The fallout from Brexit has begun. I feel I should start out by saying, the reason I have decided to write to you is to highlight what I believe to be the new “elephant in the room” – what to do about pricing in this new world after Brexit – we all know it needs to be dealt with, but some still insist on burying their heads.
VITA, along with many other hardware suppliers, has recently issued letters to their customers explaining that, as a direct result of a dramatic drop in the $USD exchange rate following the result of Brexit in June, a surcharge, or in some cases a price increase, will have to be applied to their accounts.
Understandably, this kind of news is never well received, but when some other hardware suppliers are going for a straight price increase (which will never be reviewed or removed) rather than a surcharge which is continuously reviewed, VITA, I believe, has acted fairly and in the best interests of our customers in what is a difficult situation.
We appreciate that it is hard enough trying to maintain profit margins at the best of times, but we, along with others, haven’t made this move in order to line our pockets with our customers’ money. In this case, we are reacting to world events impacting on the manufacturing and supply chain to our businesses and we are left with no choice but to pass this charge on.
Just like our customers, we are also no longer able to see our already tight margins reduced. We are always put under pressure to lower our own costs and take any increases ourselves without passing them on, but sometimes, this just isn’t possible.
VITA will continue to work hard to ensure we bring effective and relevant hardware solutions to the market place and deliver on customer expectations. The implementation of our surcharge will happen from the 1st of September along with many other suppliers and some who have already started, but I look forward to the day that I will be writing to my customers to say it is no longer in place.
Yours sincerely
Stewart Lamb
Managing Director, VITA Hardware
