Sporting-goods manufacturers, including Beaverton-based Nike, are poised to boost prices as they pass along the rising costs of commodities, labor and freight to customers.
Sporting-goods manufacturers, including Beaverton-based Nike, are poised to boost prices as they pass along the rising costs of commodities, labor and freight to customers.
More than 90 percent of sporting-goods manufacturers paid higher input costs in the first quarter, and 41 percent 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-good 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.”
Nike, maker of Air Jordan shoes and VR Pro golf clubs, will “take more significant price increases across a broader range of styles” beginning in spring 2012, Chief Financial Officer Don Blair said on a March 17 conference call after the company reported revenue and profits that missed analysts’ estimates.
Read more at Businessweek.
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