Abena Price Increase In Canada

Not sure if many of you Canadians are aware of it but Abena has seen fit to increase the price of their products across the board by 30% at the end of October. The only solutions are to either stock up now or find an alternative product. I hope everyone here shifts to substitute products which are more economical and Abena decides to roll back the price increase.

I'm pretty sure 10000's of Canadian firms will now be doing the exact same thing.

Dry 24/7's went up a month or so ago and my wipes I use went up by $2.00 per pack so,with all the increases I am now spending at least $60 per month more to deal with my OAB

I have to wonder what could possibly be driving it. Between the Chinese Economic slowdown and the collapse in the price of oil, inflation is practically zero ATM.

The price of plastic is pretty closely tied to the price of oil, and if there'd been a hike in the price of SAP or wood pulp, it would have hit baby nappies as well.

Akastus said:

The price of plastic is pretty closely tied to the price of oil, and if there'd been a hike in the price of SAP or wood pulp, it would have hit baby nappies as well.

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Baby diaper prices are pretty cutthroat though. Given the amount of diapers parents go through every month and that it's a disposable product, seeing their favorite brand raise prices 15-20% on the next visit to the store would almost certainly result in them grabbing a bag of their second favorite instead. I'd bet that's a showdown where nobody wants to be the first vendor to lower their prices, as they'd take a huge hit in sales, even if only temorarily. "Switchers" are their enemy, to be avoided wherever possible, since with a product this cheap per unit, there's very little difference between brands and no obvious reason to switch back even when prices equalize a week or three later.

Baby diaper retailers are more likely to bite the bullet and hunker down for a ferw months to see if the resources drop in price again before seriously considering a price hike. They'll get their marketing people to work redesigning their packaging (and quantity per pack) to mask the bump in price if it comes to that. "now with 15 more diapers per box!" on the pack, please ignore the $8 price increase.

Unstable pricing is likely to upset customers in any consumer market, so you would expect bulk consumers of raw materials to be using futures contracts to stabilise their per-unit costs. On that basis, you wouldn't expect to see a material-driven price increase unless the increase in material prices was a long-term trend - in which case, it would affect everyone using those materials.

babymt said:

I don't think we've seen the proper price increases for the drop in the loonie yet. My company certainly tried not to pass it on to the customer, but there comes a time when it is impossible to sustain prices when our currency has lost so much of its value over the last two years.

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Doh! Exchange rates. I really should have considered that. Especially since oil is a major part of Canada's economy these days.

I don't think I will switch. There really is no equivelent product available that can be had in quantities of less than a case. Inlike being able to pick up a single bag at the store.