Bertazzoni Australia will implement a price rise of between 4% and 7% across its range, particularly built-in products, effective 1 October 2021.
“Our parent company has tried to manage the increase in cost of materials for as long as possible, but global demand and pricing has bitten into the cost of manufacturing. Coupled with the rise in sea freight costs, this has impacted heavily with the landed cost calculation,” Bertazzoni Australia head of sales, George Alikakos told Appliance Retailer.
“Fumigation and other logistics backlogs have also affected the efficiency of getting product from port to logistic centres, in most cases adding at least a two-week delay once in Australia.”
Alikakos said a steady buying strategy was applied from early 2020 to ensure that ordering and manufacturing did not balloon out too much.
“Europe is a long way away and the Bertazzoni and La Germania Australian sale strategy is still in a steep growth pattern, so to ensure we did not miss manufacturing spots we have maintained the build of stock for our needs. Our SKUs outages are low, and I am thankful for the consistent output of the factory for our production requirements,” he said.
“Like most appliance manufacturers, we continue to see strong growth over last year across both La Germania and Bertazzoni. However, as brands that remain in the growth stage, lockdowns have impeded exposure to both consumers and retailers, with our sales team forced to educate and support our retail partners remotely.
“The Good Guys have had exceptional growth with our Deluxe Cooker range, and we continue to execute more shop-in-shop experiences in our premium retailers such as Designer Appliances, with more to be updated soon. Our project partners are identifying our dual brand strategy as a strong offer to the market from both a price and feature benefits perspective.
“I commend the great work of our team to maintain communication with our customers and retail partners.”