Author Topic: 'Out of Stock' UK  (Read 13233 times)

'Out of Stock' UK
« on: 13 February, 2021, 12:29:40 pm »
https://cyclingindustry.news/retailers-increasingly-concerned-by-price-rises-and-slipping-supply-schedules/

I'm getting the, albeit subjective, impression that component of choice 'OoS' with online retailers is more & more common.  Trying to get a few items for a frame project & am not after latest kit admittedly, so there's possibililty of a discontinued element but an awful lot is of 'out of stock'.   Perhaps it is a combination of 'COVID' cycling increase, & now 1 month+ into Br*xit...

Anyone else / thoughts?
Cycle and recycle.   SS Wilson

Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #1 on: 13 February, 2021, 12:32:02 pm »
LBS told me they hadn't been able to get any bikes for months

It's covid+ brexit

Chris S

Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #2 on: 13 February, 2021, 01:09:05 pm »
Mostly Covid, from what I overhear from the resident supply chain specialist (although she has had some intense brexit-related issues). The worldwide container shortage is a biggie. And a paper shortage.

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #3 on: 13 February, 2021, 02:31:17 pm »

Lots of out of stock on the continent too.

Feels like i got the last set of Di2 Hydraulic brake levers based on how hard it was to find a set...

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #4 on: 13 February, 2021, 03:47:30 pm »
We've had cardboard lead times shift from 5 days to 8 weeks. That'll hit companies with bespoke packaging (ie for protecting delicate parts in transit) pretty hard.
Container availability is down more than 20% - they're in the wrong place and not moving as they should.
Transport costs massively up, 30% in some cases.
Brexit, natch.
Covid, random operational shut downs due to isolated outbreaks.
Warehouses full and therefore expensive, with stuff not moving.

All fuel to the inflationary fire. It's coming for us.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #5 on: 13 February, 2021, 04:26:23 pm »
I now regret taking a garage full of cardboard to the tip the other week, and the week before.
Could have sold it mahsel

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #6 on: 13 February, 2021, 04:30:36 pm »
I now regret taking a garage full of cardboard to the tip the other week, and the week before.
Could have sold it mahsel

I have a pile of cardboard packaging I need to take out to the recycling, but the bin is frozen shut, so that's gonna have to wait.

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #7 on: 13 February, 2021, 05:23:33 pm »
Covid badly affected manufacturing in China and Japan.
Brexit has put significant barriers in the way of importing cycles and parts . Even from outside the EU there are issues - for instance China has a tariff deal with the EU. We aren’t in the EU any more.
Also many cycle parts supply chains operate through Europe. For instance, my understanding is that Shimano is/was supplied to the U.K. distributors by Shimano Europe.
There’s a shortage of parts. Big customers- i.e bike manufacturers, are going to take precedence.
It’s a mess - Covid + Brexit.

Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #8 on: 13 February, 2021, 07:52:35 pm »
Yeah, but we've taken back control, so well worth that bullet to our own face  :-[

Davef

Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #9 on: 14 February, 2021, 07:27:59 am »
Covid badly affected manufacturing in China and Japan.
Brexit has put significant barriers in the way of importing cycles and parts . Even from outside the EU there are issues - for instance China has a tariff deal with the EU. We aren’t in the EU any more.
Also many cycle parts supply chains operate through Europe. For instance, my understanding is that Shimano is/was supplied to the U.K. distributors by Shimano Europe.
There’s a shortage of parts. Big customers- i.e bike manufacturers, are going to take precedence.
It’s a mess - Covid + Brexit.
Shimano for example are saying it is down to unprecedented demand and it takes up to a year to increase production. Manufacturing capacity has not dropped but has not grown fast enough. It is nothing to do with tariffs. The U.K. distribution for shimano is and always has been in Milton Keynes.

There is also a worldwide shortage of shipping containers which does not help matters. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/22/shipping-container-shortage-is-causing-shipping-costs-to-rise.html - probably due to Brexit or Boris Johnson.

Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #10 on: 14 February, 2021, 09:14:48 am »
Huge problems with availability of shipping containers between Europe and Asia and those that are available are anywhere between 4&5 times the 2019 price. Locally, a journey by truck between the UK and Europe that used to take 2days is now taking 7ish, which is fuelling a knock on availability effect  too.

A

Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #11 on: 14 February, 2021, 11:49:42 am »
It is nothing to do with tariffs. The U.K. distribution for shimano is and always has been in Milton Keynes.

It previously went to Milton Keynes (EU). It now goes to Milton Keynes (UK). Those are completely different places.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #12 on: 14 February, 2021, 06:59:00 pm »
It is nothing to do with tariffs. The U.K. distribution for shimano is and always has been in Milton Keynes.

It previously went to Milton Keynes (EU). It now goes to Milton Keynes (UK). Those are completely different places.

There's also the question of whether that's Japan -> Milton -> UK Distribution
Or  Keynes or Japan -> EU -> Milton Keynes -> UK Distribution

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #13 on: 16 February, 2021, 09:46:24 am »
Anecdote on the lack of containers: Yesterday I was walking along the River Avon between Bristol and Bath. At one point the railway runs parallel on the other side of the river and I saw a freight train which at first I thought was just two engines. But it didn't sound right, so I looked again and saw a container. One single container, in the middle of a train of empty waggons. It was heading east – inland – so clearly whatever wasn't on the other waggons was meant to have been imports.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Davef

Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #14 on: 16 February, 2021, 10:22:25 am »
It is nothing to do with tariffs. The U.K. distribution for shimano is and always has been in Milton Keynes.

It previously went to Milton Keynes (EU). It now goes to Milton Keynes (UK). Those are completely different places.

There's also the question of whether that's Japan -> Milton -> UK Distribution
Or  Keynes or Japan -> EU -> Milton Keynes -> UK Distribution
As the sole U.K. distributor is possibly the biggest in the world, shipping stuff to one of the smaller eu based distributors first seems unlikely before or after brexit. The shimano shortage seems less bad currently in the U.K. than the rest of the world, particularly the U.S.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #15 on: 16 February, 2021, 02:05:14 pm »
It is nothing to do with tariffs. The U.K. distribution for shimano is and always has been in Milton Keynes.

It previously went to Milton Keynes (EU). It now goes to Milton Keynes (UK). Those are completely different places.

There's also the question of whether that's Japan -> Milton -> UK Distribution
Or  Keynes or Japan -> EU -> Milton Keynes -> UK Distribution
As the sole U.K. distributor is possibly the biggest in the world, shipping stuff to one of the smaller eu based distributors first seems unlikely before or after brexit. The shimano shortage seems less bad currently in the U.K. than the rest of the world, particularly the U.S.


And yet the Shimano UK catalogue is produced by Shimano Europe BV
It's not so much who the distributor is as where/who the distributor purchases their physical stuff from, does it come from Shimano in Japan or Shimano in Europe.
Politically it would make sense for Madison to get their stuff direct from Japan now, assuming Shimano will do that, looking at the distributors for non-EU europe there is significant overlaps so wouldn't be surprised if they just get that from EU warehouses with associated extra costs.

As for Madison's size again looking at the distributor list, I'd have thought either Paul Lange with Germany, Czech, Slovakia, Hungary and the Ukraine or Euro Trade with  Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Greece and Kosovo would be bigger than Madison who only have 65m people to sell to without extra barriers (chances of them holding onto Ireland?).

https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/information/distributors-list.html

Davef

Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #16 on: 16 February, 2021, 02:08:40 pm »
Shimano South Africa is also covered by shimano Europe. It does not mean the goods come into and out of Europe. It would make no sense from a tariff point of view or logistics.

Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #17 on: 16 February, 2021, 02:14:52 pm »
As the sole U.K. distributor is possibly the biggest in the world, shipping stuff to one of the smaller eu based distributors first seems unlikely before or after brexit.

Shimano services the whole EU from three big distribution centres in NL, FR and PL. Brexiteers do so love pretending the single market has no advantages, or simply doesn't exist.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #18 on: 16 February, 2021, 02:20:32 pm »
In some countries the importer is "Shimano $country" and in others it's a private company. South Africa, Tunesia [sic] and (of course) Israel are part of Europe for Shimano. https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/information/distributors-list.html
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Davef

'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #19 on: 16 February, 2021, 02:37:01 pm »
It is nothing to do with tariffs. The U.K. distribution for shimano is and always has been in Milton Keynes.

It previously went to Milton Keynes (EU). It now goes to Milton Keynes (UK). Those are completely different places.

There's also the question of whether that's Japan -> Milton -> UK Distribution
Or  Keynes or Japan -> EU -> Milton Keynes -> UK Distribution
As the sole U.K. distributor is possibly the biggest in the world, shipping stuff to one of the smaller eu based distributors first seems unlikely before or after brexit. The shimano shortage seems less bad currently in the U.K. than the rest of the world, particularly the U.S.


And yet the Shimano UK catalogue is produced by Shimano Europe BV
It's not so much who the distributor is as where/who the distributor purchases their physical stuff from, does it come from Shimano in Japan or Shimano in Europe.
Politically it would make sense for Madison to get their stuff direct from Japan now, assuming Shimano will do that, looking at the distributors for non-EU europe there is significant overlaps so wouldn't be surprised if they just get that from EU warehouses with associated extra costs.

As for Madison's size again looking at the distributor list, I'd have thought either Paul Lange with Germany, Czech, Slovakia, Hungary and the Ukraine or Euro Trade with  Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Greece and Kosovo would be bigger than Madison who only have 65m people to sell to without extra barriers (chances of them holding onto Ireland?).

https://bike.shimano.com/en-EU/information/distributors-list.html
The uk market for shimano by price is about half combined rest of the eu, with 90% of eu sales going to France Italy and Germany. Some years U.K. even pips he USA making us the single biggest country. Maybe we are just overcharged. It seems bizarre that we buy so much shimano stuff. I am sure it has never come via European distributors. The shimano own distribution in eu tends to be covering smaller countries. There is a very very small amount of shimano manufacture in europe. I am sure brexit will affect somethings but not shimano, unless of course it is attached to an Italian or German bike.

FifeingEejit

  • Not Small
Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #20 on: 16 February, 2021, 05:28:43 pm »
So you are 100% sure Madison receive stock directly from Shimano in Japan in a container all of their own and not from a warehouse run by Shimano which is then distributed to the distributors and not transported in the same sealed containers as that which goes to other European Distributors?

Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #21 on: 16 February, 2021, 06:50:17 pm »
I doubt it. AFAIK an awful lot of bike kit comes through  the Netherlands. I'd put money on Shimano basing it's euro operations there too.

Davef

Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #22 on: 16 February, 2021, 07:42:33 pm »
So you are 100% sure Madison receive stock directly from Shimano in Japan in a container all of their own and not from a warehouse run by Shimano which is then distributed to the distributors and not transported in the same sealed containers as that which goes to other European Distributors?
I think it comes mainly from the factories in Singapore and Malaysia. As they are supplying the entire U.K. retail and bike manufactures, it will be multiple containers (if there was stock available). The whole definition of a distributor is direct supply from the factory. So for example Brompton or Dolan want 200 shimano 105 cranksets or wiggle want 5000 chains that all comes from the stock held by the U.K. distributor. Similarly setup for the large distributor in Germany. The warehousing and goods handling shimano have in Europe is relatively small and it is for where they do distribution themselves for example their benelux hub. It is way smaller than then U.K. or German distributor.

Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #23 on: 22 February, 2021, 05:22:52 pm »
Cannondale is in Holland and i bet everything else is unless you want a custom bike (frame) . Are any UK distributors going to import direct, a little market compared to Europe and will the manufacturers want to deal with small volumes. Prices will go up.

Re: 'Out of Stock' UK
« Reply #24 on: 12 March, 2021, 04:00:19 pm »
Cycle and recycle.   SS Wilson