Monday, 17 January 2011

Christmas and Cotton Commodities

Hello!

Gosh it’s been a long time since we last posted a blog.

We are very sad to report that our regular Eureco blogger, Megan, has moved on to a full time position writing copy for a well known real estate company. We wish her well and as you can see (by our subsequent lack of blog posts) her skills are much missed already!

Over the Christmas period we were extremely busy processing customer orders from all over the world and we hope that everyone who received Eureco towels or robes over Christmas was thrilled with their gifts!

Our January Sale commenced just a few days later with 20% off everything storewide and an incredible 40% off selected ‘clearance items’.

January is always an interesting time as we take time to review the year that was 2010 and prepare for what is looking as though it will be an increasingly challenging year ahead.

There have been some dramatic developments in the global cotton markets which are set to impact Eureco over the coming year. The Pakistani floods of 2010 destroyed over 3000 km2 (that’s 30%) of their cotton crop. According to the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association over 2 million bales of cotton were destroyed which has led to an increase in the global commodities price with cotton now trading at all time high prices.


Furthermore, the world’s largest producer of cotton, China, has also had a shortfall in production for the 12th year running, cutting their stockpiles to their lowest levels since 1995 and adding further upward pressure on the price of cotton.

Closer to home, the very recent Queensland floods have wiped out almost all Queensland’s cotton crop. While it is too soon to really understand what impact this will have on global cotton prices, it will doubtlessly add further pressure to what is already a volatile commodity.

All this activity in the global markets means that our Belgian supplier (along with almost all other textile manufacturers around the world) has been forced to increase their prices. Our prices are usually set in January for the 12 months ahead however, due to continued uncertainty around the price of cotton, our prices for 2011 are set for just 3 months at a time.

While we will not be amending our collection prices at this time, the possibility exists that we may be forced to increase our prices at some stage during 2011. Just more good reason to take advantage of our January sale prices while they last!

This year, we will also be discontinuing a number of our current colours within our Luxury Bamboo Collection and launching exciting new colours in their place. We expect to launch our new colours by roughly the end of March, early April and we’ll keep you updated with news of the new releases as they approach.


Sneak Peek - Frances putting together the colourstory for new colours launching soon!


In the meantime, don’t forget to take advantage of our January sale prices while they last!


Take care until next time!