By now everyone should be aware that there is a very steep price increase on glass coming our way very soon. It was announced weeks ago now, but as we enter a new financial year at the start of April, we should be seeing these increases being implemented fairly soon. Pilkington was the first to announce the rises, and as always, once one manufacturer hikes prices, the rest follow in just a few weeks. When prices rise by over 20%, what should be done about them?

In short, nothing. It’s not as if we can do anything to reverse the rises, we don’t have that power. And it’s not as if we can just move to another supplier as they all raise their prices. Switching suppliers wouldn’t achieve anything. As the major companies pass on their increases to suppliers, suppliers will then have to pass those on to installers. We cannot expect suppliers to take a 25% increase on the chin, it’s unfair. If it was something menial, like a 2-3% increase then maybe we could say that they should. But when it’s such a massive increase across the board, we need to accept that this cannot just be absorbed.

We’re all starting to get business back booming again. This is obviously a great thing, but what we don’t need to do is to start absorbing major cost increases which is only going to damage our profit margins. What needs to happen is these increases have to be passed on to the customer. No one likes price increases, especially the companies who only seem to sell on price and not quality – these guys aren’t true professionals. But when a rise is so big, it really does have to be filtered down so that the customer pays. It’s not nice, but its a fact of business life. If non of us ever passed down increases, businesses would be closing left, right and centre.

Will you be passing on your increases to your customers or absorbing them? Is 25% increase too much to absorb? Should our suppliers be taking more of a hit or should they be passing it all down? All comments on this are welcome in the section below.