US: sports goods prices to increase
US data company Bloomberg has warned that retailers are ready to boost prices on athletic footwear, apparel and sports equipment, as they join other industries in passing along rising costs for commodities, foreign labour and freight.
More than 90% of sporting-goods manufacturers paid higher input costs in the first quarter, and 41% of these companies already increased wholesale prices, according to a quarterly survey of private, independent vendors and retailers conducted by Robert W. Baird & Co.
“This clearly demonstrates the emerging cost and price pressure across the sporting-goods space,” said Peter Benedict, a retail analyst in Stamford, Connecticut, at Baird. “We’re hearing a consistent message from vendors and retailers that cotton, fuel and wage costs are starting to go up, and they’re slowly going to come through on the retail side later this year and certainly in 2012.”
When prices manufacturers paid for imported sporting goods grew 3.3% in 2008, retail price tags increased 3%, according to data from the Bureau of Labour Statistics. That pattern likely will be repeated following a 2.1% rise in April for imported goods compared with a year ago, said Dean Maki, chief US economist at Barclays Capital in New York.
With these prices at the highest level in almost two years, “it would be reasonable” for consumers to pay more, Mr Maki said.
