"Announcing your customers that prices are going to increase? But are you crazy? You have to do it without warning, it's much simpler! Your prices are low, no one will notice!"
That's pretty much the answer given by every person in the business with whom we've discussed the subject of price increases. And yet, we once again prefer to tell you the truth rather than present you with a fait accompli. We won't be the only ones and we don't prefer to hide anything from you!
Emmanuel, Thomas and Samy
Why will our prices increase in 2022?
There are things we would prefer to see unchanged. There are also things over which we unfortunately have little control. This year, our prices will have to increase, and here are the reasons.
Fair pricing: a founding value at Hast
Since the creation of the Hast brand, almost 10 years ago, fair pricing has been a founding value of our company. By controlling our costs as best as possible, we have been able, over the years, to offer you honest and accessible prices. Margins are reduced (compared to the traditional fashion environment) in order to always maintain this excellent value for money characteristic of our positioning.
Year after year, the increase in salaries in our workshops, perfectly justified, had been offset by the increase in our volumes. In 2022, for the first time, we will have to increase our prices. It is not a question of increasing our margins but of monitoring the increase in costs linked, in particular, to the health crisis. We have received dozens and dozens of emails from our workshops to tell us of sudden increases for several weeks. In our logic of transparency, it seems important to us to inform our customers in advance and to explain the concrete reasons for these increases necessary to maintain the same level of requirements.
Why this increase?
The health crisis linked to Covid-19 (among others) has put more than one industry to the test. And the fashion industry is certainly no exception, on the contrary. The numerous slowdowns, confinements, resumptions and successive production stoppages have had a number of direct and indirect consequences, including two main ones directly impacting the increase in prices in the textile sector: the freight crisis and the subsequent increase in the price of raw materials.
The maritime freight crisis and its consequences on road transport
The freight crisis (price of transport of goods) observed recently is linked to logistical difficulties following the different waves of Covid-19. Containers and ships were in short supply because the different confinements, with different and delayed temporalities and geographies, created a fundamental organizational imbalance. Many containers thus found themselves vacant in ports that were at a standstill, leaving other maritime areas in high demand waiting. Blockages at regular intervals have been extremely complex to manage logistically. Added to this was the disruption of global maritime traffic by the container ship Ever Given, stranded for several months in the Suez Canal on March 23, 2021. This crisis had the effect of multiplying transport prices by 3 to 6 maritime. In the grip of particularly virulent inflation since the start of the health crisis, road transport is not left out since it is experiencing the same disruptions linked to the health crisis: increase in demand, increase in the cost of gasoline, salary negotiations...
Even if our manufacturing is mainly made within the European Union, the raw materials come from all over the world (Egyptian cotton, Australian merino, etc.) and the increase in global demand has had repercussions on all markets. Many brands have turned to European workshops to produce their collections, reducing the time available and increasing the costs of our historical service providers.
Email from a workshop dated 15.11.21
The significant increase in the price of raw materials
According to the economic magazine Capital in an article dating from November 2021, the respective costs of cotton and wool have increased drastically in a short year, by 43% and 47% respectively. Several reasons linked or not to the Covid-19 crisis explain these increases. As seen previously, the freight crisis is one of the major causes of cost increases. But other elements come into play, particularly in the case of cotton.
An important point to consider in the context of the increase in cotton prices is the impact of the strong recovery in demand after months of harvest and production shutdowns. This resumption inevitably leads to tensions on the production chains which cannot always respond to this new demand, adding to that of the delays following repetitive production stoppages. The strong demand is also explained by an increase in the price of a barrel of oil, leading to an increase in the price of synthetic petroleum-based textiles such as polyester. Many brands are therefore turning to other materials – such as cotton (so much the better). Added to this are finally two other major crises: the climate crisis and the political crisis over the Uighur question. The climate crisis has caused many unusual bad weather conditions making cotton production less prolific than in past decades. At the same time, the fight for human rights surrounding the forced labor of the Uyghur community in China has moved the international community, and pushed many brands to refuse cotton from the Xinjiang region (also good). These various factors have put the sector under strong pressure, leading to significant increases in prices.
Two recent emails from our suppliers
Other raw materials are experiencing similar tensions in the face of weak harvests followed by spectacular returns to demand levels equal to or even higher than those before the start of the crisis. Wool, linen, cotton, no material escapes the rise. The same goes for wood, metal, aluminum, etc. and this affects the entire production chain.
It is therefore these cumulative increases between the price of raw materials and the price of transport which determine the necessary increase in prices, which we have managed to contain until now. As we said in the preamble, we have chosen to warn you in time so that you can still benefit from the 2021 prices for a few more weeks. We will then continue to do everything to offer you excellent value for money, without compensation!
During the first weeks of 2022, we will offer existing stocks of clothing . The Goût du Sel collection and the permanent pieces already produced and stored will in no way be affected by the increases. These will come on restocks and collections currently in development, for the reasons we discussed above. Then, rest assured, our prices will increase reasonably and we guarantee that we will maintain the excellent value for money that characterizes us!
We have chosen to talk about it just before the sales period, without wanting to push you to consume, to announce that this will still be an opportunity to take advantage of our current prices. There will be no reduction but there will be no increase either.
Thank you for reading us!
