If there is one thing that a pottery company cannot do without, it is clay. Yet this is the situation facing small business owner Myfanvie Gloster, who with her husband Tom runs Gloster in Porthmadog, North Wales.
The couple sources clay from Spain through a company in Stoke-on-Trent. But in recent months, stock has proven nearly impossible to arrive, with shipments often delayed by customs for weeks at a time.
Thousands of small business owners like Myfanwy are struggling to hold on to critical items in Ukraine due to the war, shipping complications post-Brexit, rising energy costs and manufacturing delays related to the pandemic.
Icing Over: Lynsey Blakely Fears Losing Customers, and Drew Cockton, Is Cutting Costs
According to the Office for National Statistics, one in five firms are experiencing a global supply chain disruption.
Everything from printer paper to sunflower oil, flower presses and car parts is in short supply. In some cases, shortages are putting small businesses at risk and jeopardizing the finances of their owners.
Myfanwy has had to dive into her savings to freeze the soil when she can hold it so they never end up again.
She hopes to be able to reimburse herself by autumn, and is cutting back on household expenses in the meantime.
“Usually, we order a ton of clay every five weeks, but recently bought six tons because we can’t move before Christmas, which is our busiest time,” she says.
‘It costs £3,000, which is a huge outlay, but we’d like to know we don’t have it in stock.
‘When we ran out of clay, we had to cancel some orders because we couldn’t fulfill them and we had people in the workshop who were unable to do the work.’
Lisa Johnson has seen her income from her skincare business, LJ Natural, since Russia invaded Ukraine at the start of the year. About a third of her products use organic sunflower seed oil as a key ingredient, including her best-selling cream for eczema sufferers, Scratchy Balm.
However, when the war broke out, oil supplies were cut off for several weeks. Now Lisa can grab it again, but the price has gone up by more than 50 percent.
‘I’m trying very hard not to raise my prices,’ says Lisa, a mother of two, because my customers are already becoming fewer and hundreds of people depend on my products for their skin health. ‘But it is extremely difficult for me to bear these price hikes and I cannot make less and less money.’
Lisa and her family have cut back on their spending, especially treats like coffee and cake. She adds: ‘The price of sunflower seed oil is likely to rise further.’
Emma Jones, founder of small business support platform Enterprise Nation, believes that although small businesses are facing new challenges, they are well equipped to adapt to the difficulties posed by the pandemic’s hurricane season. Huh. ,
“The experience of the pandemic has seen the business community pivot to dealing with unprecedented situations, so they are accustomed to facing ever-changing circumstances,” she says. ‘He has the strategy and experience to handle things.’
Drew Cockton is embracing rising costs and supply chain constraints at his luxury fragrance company Owen Drew, wherever he can.
Drew started his Liverpool-based business six years ago and last year successfully pitched Toker Suleiman on BBC One’s Dragons Den for £50,000. Drew is planning a major rebrand on the advice of his new business partner. However, they had to delay for several months as they could not source essential items like paper and cards.
The price of the wax used in the candles they sell has increased by 40 percent and the supply is taking months instead of days. The price of all oils and fragrances, such as orange from Spain and grapefruit from Greece, has also gone up.
‘To try to absorb the costs, I’ve put a hold on business spending like PR and marketing,’ says Drew. ‘I’d rather have coffee or lunch than have business meetings online remotely.
‘And I put off making any other purchases because I need the capital to buy the stock when I can source it.’
Drew hopes to avoid dipping into his savings to invest in the business, but only if it comes.
“The government needs to overcome this livelihood crisis,” he says. “The good things that make life enjoyable are slowly becoming cheaper.”
Lynsey Bleakley is concerned that supply issues at her luxury bakery, Bumble & Goose, are weighing on her customers. She had to stop offering popular vegetarian items as she struggled to catch up with the vegan baking butter she relied on for recipes.
Linsey, which is based in Groomsport near Bangor in County Down, Northern Ireland, distributes a variety of biscuits, cakes and brownies in the UK and Ireland and counts John Lewis, Harrods and Charlotte Tilbury among its corporate clients.
“Many suppliers will no longer ship to Northern Ireland or do extortion,” she says. ‘We’re chasing supplies for vegan butter, which is great for biscuits, but we can’t catch it.’
Linsey managed to find a supermarket in England that was 20 blocks across and bought a lot, but is worried about running out again.
‘Our vegetarian range is small but important to us. I had to take the range off the website until we found the right content, which meant we could lose out to potential customers,’ she says.
Tina McKenzie, policy chair of the Federation of Small Businesses, says targeted interventions from the government are needed to help small firms tide over the current cost-of-doing-business crisis, by getting the goods they need and at affordable prices. Can meet can you
“Help could include cuts in taxes, such as increased business rates and national insurance payments,” she says.
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