Barbour forced to raise prices due to “extraordinary challenges”
Wax jacket brand Barbour has been forced to raise its prices due to the impact of higher inflation, the cost-of-living crisis, and a slowdown in customer demand.
The 129-year-old business told The Telegraph that it was facing a combination of issues, including prices increases for materials, staffing, shipping and energy, as well as higher duty costs following the UK’s exit from the EU.
Owned by the Barbour family, the South Shields based business saw its sales rise by 32% to £286.6 million in the year to April 2022 as it began to recover following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions.
Looking ahead, Barbour managing director Steve Buck told the newspaper: “The fiscal year 2022/23 will see some extraordinary challenges for our business with higher inflation, the cost-of-living crisis and market contraction.
“The ongoing impact of the pandemic, Brexit and the current global economic uncertainty has resulted in many challenges to margins across all channels and markets, including rising costs and pricing pressures.
“We’ve had to increase some of our prices, but being very mindful of what customers are experiencing, we have only passed on half of the cost increase in price.”
