After so many years where prices hardly increased, it is frustrating to raise our prices again today. We last revised our pricing on 31 March, which generally would suffice for at least a year, but this is no longer the case.
Today, we increased our prices online and sent out new price lists to our distributors and resellers.
The consumables used for ZeroFlush urinals in the main originate from the United States and therefore are paid for in US dollars. However, the crash of the Australian dollar to under 65c and trending lower has enormously impacted our costs. Allied to the direct product costs is the continual high freight costs, mainly paid for in US dollars.
You are sadly mistaken if you think the increases end in buying the product and paying the freight to get it here. Once the shipment arrives in Australia, the Australian Government then charges a myriad of charges listed below, with a box of parts last week that cost $2980 USD having Australian entry fees of $989.31:
- GST, which is charged on what the shipment cost in Australian dollars
- Import Duty because allegedly Caroma manufactures urinals in Australia, and so we pay import duty to help protect Caroma
- Import entry inspection fee
- Administrative fee
This year's dramatic increases in our WaterMark annual fees are added to our cost pressures. They have doubled and are now costing us almost $100 per week. WaterMark has increased all the fees we pay them, but of course, we get no protection from them for companies using non-approved parts on ZeroFlush urinals.
We are not apologising for raising our costs; we realise every business operation is being impacted, but we are just trying to explain why we have increased our prices twice in the last six months.