Expect 2022 to be another year of limited stock and rising prices, says Worcester based outdoor brand Olpro

A lack of shipping containers and courier drivers are delaying the arrival of camping products and staycation essentials, according to the Worcester-based outdoor brand, Olpro.

The camping industry has experienced unprecedented issues in manufacturing enough stock to meet the soaring demand for camping and outdoor products, and the cost of manufacturing these products has also sky-rocketed. Containers typically cost Olpro $2,000 each, but during 2021, with such a high demand for a limited number of shipping containers, this cost has risen to $11,000 per container.

As summer draws to a close, there are still no signs that the cost of shipping containers will be dropping soon. The delays caused by the lack of containers are continuing to severely affect the arrival of nine of Olpro’s major products, including the highly-anticipated WRAP Campervan Awning which sold out of pre-orders as early as May this year.

Issues with manufacturing products aren’t set to ease either, according to Olpro’s Managing Director, Daniel Walton. “We’ve received nearly half a million pounds’ worth of stock less than we expected at this point in the year, which is a huge disappointment for a business like ours. Last year we were able to turnover £3.2million, so to have missed out on such a large amount of stock is definitely worrying."

“In some instances, the delays on shipping for our products have been so severe that we’ve had to pay roughly £200 per product to get them flown over by air instead. Some of our customers had pre-ordered their products at the end of 2020 and their products still haven’t arrived - we’re just as frustrated by the delays as they are. It’s just been an incredibly difficult year for logistics.”

“Since June, we’ve been forced to introduce an entirely new system for pre-orders, so customers are only able to pre-order a product once we know it’s manufactured and it’s confirmed to be on the way from our factories. However, the issues we can’t work our way around is the shortage of containers and drivers available, and unfortunately this means we expect 2022 to be another year of limited stock and rising prices for our customers.”