Don't stop me now....

It's great to be able to support our customers and fellow sector colleagues with reliable supply, and we'd like to thanks our in-house team and suppliers for making this possible. Customer service is key (sounds cliché I know but there's nothing like running out of vital supplies as the supplier didn't look after you. We will do everything in our power to make sure your requirements are catered to whatever the situation :) )

But more importantly, we want to give you an update on lead times for bespoke cartons and other products from our warehouse. We can't look ahead too far, but we can speak for the rest of March and April.

Cardboard:

Please do get in touch because we can often find solutions to current or upcoming shortages of any packing materials.

There are extended lead times across the industry on Bespoke cartons but we are working around these challenges on every order and slowly we are seeing some specifications decrease in lead time thanks to increased supply, but as demand ceases to decrease, lead times will probably continue to be extended for a while. We are able to supply on a 7 day lead time and a 5 week lead time in some cases to make sure you get the goods you need.

Most lead times are reliant on the quantity and specification of what you require.

Stock cartons we are able to keep good depths of stock thanks to our big open warehouse, and we can deliver in 1-3 days.

Palletwrap, Strapping, Bluefoam and other Packaging Materials:

We are seeing normal lead times on other packaging products such as Tape, Palletwrap, strapping with delivery to our customers in 1-2 days.

In view of the plastic packaging tax in March 2022, we will be contacting all our customers to make sure they are aware of the new tax and that any products they currently use that aren't exempt from the tax are researched to see if an alternative can be supplied

Further Price Increases Possible?

Yup, it's a question we receive a lot and we believe its a very important one. We have had one price increase across the industry and there may be more to come. In the event that there are more increases arriving, we will - as always - update our customers well in advance and make sure any challenges you might face are covered off.

We have experienced good and stable cardboard prices across the industry for a year or two now and since the increased demand for boxes last year there has been shortages of the paper to serve the industry, leading to raw material price increases in many more sectors such as steel.

Brexit - is this affecting Europe Supply Chains?

Yes and no. There's not really an easy answer to this, but one thing we can say for sure is that the exchange rate between the pound and euro has been good and it's helping us source more products from Europe with good prices. Delays are slightly longer than usual but not as long as we expected. Normally customs would take around 1 day but is now taking up to 3 days max.

The key thing that Brexit has changed is the paperwork involved in overseas shipping to Europe and we now have to make sure that all this paperwork is filled out correctly before we ship the goods. Thanks to our brilliant shipping agents our Europe supply chains remain strong.

If you have any questions about anythinggg - then don't hesitate, we are looking forward to chatting to you, via your preferred method!

Phone - 01892 839080

Email - sales@westmountpackaging.co.uk