Why does the cost of fabric keep going up?

I hate surprises. As such, I don’t like to surprise other people either. This is especially true when it comes to business.

Between my blogs, my various social media posts and my weekly talks with retailers on the private Jaftex Retailer’s Group, I really put a lot of information out there related to what’s going on in our business and in the entire quilting and fabric industry.

I am not one to beat around the bush or sugar coat things either. I tell it how it is. I find honesty is the best policy and being forthright in business is the only way to go. That is how I gain the trust of my customers and I hope they appreciate and value me and my companies for it. That is what a partnership is about….the sharing of critical information.

What I am getting to here is that prices have been going up, they continue to go up and I don’t know when they will stop going up. I have been talking about prices going up to my retailer customers since we started hearing about the first price increases when Covid began. I have also probably blogged about it over the last year too. To this day, I am still talking about it as it is still going on and not showing many signs of slowing down yet.

The reason I am so transparent is that I want my customers to be prepared for what lies ahead. I don’t want them thinking that prices are not going up when I know that they are. I don’t want to just drop it on them out of nowhere.

I want to make sure that my customers are prepared in order to maintain the margins that they need to stay in business. We need our customers to stay in business and to be profitable to survive so keeping the lines of communications open on all subjects is critical, especially when it relates to pricing.

Now back to the question in the title of this blog: Why does the cost of fabric keep going up?

Since Covid began, we at Jaftex, and I presume most of my competition, have had to raise prices one or more times over the last 2 years. In no particular order, these have been the crux of the headwinds that we all have faced on the pricing front or are facing:

1. Freight: The cost of getting a container of fabric from overseas to the US has gone up 5 fold. The price to truck the container to our warehouse has also skyrocketed.
2. Labor: The cost of labor has increased as the labor market shrunk during Covid. It’s harder to find people to work and the people we do find are demanding more money.
3. Cotton: Like many commodities, cotton has been spiking too.
4. Supplies: We use tons of boxes, plastic, straps, inks, tape, paper, etc. and these items are all going up. My brother just advised me the other day that our box supplier just went up another 10%.
5. The Mills: The first increase that we have had to face in 2022 is from the mills. The mills are advising that their cost of power to run their plants and the dyestuffs they use to color the fabric are up 20-30%. In 2021, the increase from the mill was due to the price of cotton.
6. Technology: Computers and machinery are in tighter supply and as such, those prices are all up too.
7. Shortages: Everything is tight and in short supply. Labor. Trucks. Supplies. With that tightness comes higher prices every where you turn.

At about this point, you are probably wondering why I am telling you this? The reason I am telling you, the consumer, is that I want you to be prepared too for when you go to your local quilt shop and you see that the prices are up. It’s not that the owners are trying to gouge you or anything like that. The truth is that there is very real inflation and everything keeps going up….until it doesn’t.

With that, when you make your next visit to the quilt shop, don’t get mad at the owner when you see the higher prices because they are just doing what they need to do to stay in business. Inflation is everywhere and there is no way to avoid it now.

Consider yourself forewarned. Hoping for more cheery blog subjects soon.