Rossmann, Kik & Co.
Why drugstore products & clothing will soon become more expensive
© eldar nurkovic / Shutterstock
by Janna Mansfeld
Due to ongoing delivery bottlenecks from Asia, products in Germany will soon become more expensive. This is what leading retail chains mean.
The coronavirus just doesn’t want to stop affecting our lives. In this case, however, it is not about nightly exit restrictions or quarantine requirements – at least not ours. In mid-May there was one in the south of China renewed corona outbreak in the port of Yantian. Since then, strict hygiene and quarantine measures have been in place there. There are fewer workers on site everything runs slower. The result: ordered goods accumulate in the port of Asia. Empty There are hardly any containers left. Places on container ships are hotly contested. Transport costs are skyrocketing.
Within a year, the cost of transporting a standard 40-foot container has quadrupled. It wasn’t until the beginning of July that the average transport costs rose by almost 16 percent within just one week. The market researcher Drewy calls this a record increase.
This is how it affects Germany
Whether clothing, FFP2 masks, shoes & Co. – many of our products in Germany are ordered by German dealers such as Kik and Rossmann from Asia. By the bottlenecks in freight traffic, the ordered goods do not arrive in the warehouses or not in time and thus ultimately also in our stores.
“We have great difficulties in getting freight capacity for our orders on the ships,” says Patrick Zahn, head of the textile discounter Kik, the Handelsblatt. “In the most important time of the year, we lack the goods.” No goods, no sales – and thus losses. For the Kik boss it is clear: “There will be no avoiding price increases in retail. That is an attack on our business model. ”Raoul Rossmann, head of the drugstore chain of the same name, also says:“ It is becoming more and more difficult to get goods from Asia to the stores on time. ”
The Institut für Weltwirtschaft (ifW) estimates that this year alone the damaged global supply chains will cost the German economy around 25 billion euros.
Christmas sales are in jeopardy
But not only the current goods are affected by the corona container chaos. The dealers plan before and should actually now place their order for the Christmas business in Asia. Marcus Diekmann, the managing director of the bicycle dealer Rose Bikes, expects a “mega price increase” especially for the Christmas business. One of the largest German online retailers, the Berlin Brands Group (BBG) with a turnover of 334 million euros, also expressed concern.
sources used: Chip, Handelsblatt