To Our Valued Customers:
We are updating you on some ongoing industry issues that are affecting all label manufacturers. COVID-19 has driven up demand for labels over the past year, it has also created supply chain issues for our raw materials.
- Costs for corrugated cartons, stretch and shrink films, plastic bags and other ancillary products haven risen substantially over the past 9 months. Now, we are also starting to see cost increases for raw materials. Once these cost increases actually hit us, we will have no choice but to initiate an across-the-board price increase for all products, both custom and stock.
- Freight costs continue to rise. Between the high demand for distributed products driven by COVID-19 and the ongoing shortage of drivers, we anticipate shipping cost increases will continue into the foreseeable future. Plus, freight reliability has decreased significantly in recent months as well.
- All of our raw material providers continue to report record high backlogs. This, along with labor shortages, has doubled lead times for standard TT and DT label stocks while tripling lead times for many specialty materials.
- Due to increased label demand and longer lead times from suppliers, our lead times have lengthened as well. You should plan for 15 to 20 working day lead times on standard custom work. Specialty items may have longer lead times.
Supply chain issues are also affecting hardware manufacturers. Transit time of electronic components and finished product from Asia are longer. The Ports along the West Coast are working reduced staffing to protect against COVID-19 and thus ships are stacked up in the harbor and out into the ocean waiting to dock and unload. We are seeing 2 to 4 week delays in product reaching warehouses. Please keep this in mind and that you might find some hardware products unavailable. This is industry-wide and not just All Barcode Systems.
We are committed to you and your needs.