I have had reports over the last couple of days that suppliers are now increasing their prices from the beginning of June. One of my followers tweeted me today to say that GAP had informed him of a price increase on their products today and was blaming it on the increase in the price of oil.

Indeed, a couple of our suppliers have informed us of price increases. But to be fair, these haven’t come out of the blue and we were warned of them weeks and months ago. It seems that the high cost of oil (although it has reduced by a good $20 over the last month) has caught up with the big boys in our industry and they are not finally having to pass on the price increases.

High oil costs have been hitting polymer prices hard over the last few months which is probably the main reason for these increases. This, as well as the rising cost of fuel. Manufacturers and suppliers simply cannot hold off these increases anymore. And nor should installers. We all have a margin to make and the public does understand that the cost of good and services is going up. So we shouldn’t punish ourselves and make things harder by taking these increases on the chin.

I have been saying for a while now that increases will have to come sooner rather than later, and it seems that we may be in for a summer of uncomfortable letters from suppliers.

This sort of emphasizes my point about the sustainability of the industry and that we need to be making more progress in the recycling of post consumer waste and sourcing our PVCu polymers from sustainable crops and so on.