Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/1471270
64 m a s s a g e & b o d y wo r k j u l y/a u g u s t 2 0 2 2 a lot of product testing and reformulation [is needed]," he says. "The shortage will likely be felt for years due to it being an annually harvested agricultural product. It is hard enough to just get oil these days, but as we are USDA certified organic, we have an even more difficult time finding certified organic oils. With no end in sight to the war, it may take several years for the oil market to recover." At The Spa Mart, Lester is also feeling the pinch when it comes to obtaining sunflower and safflower oils, but he is also struggling to get disposable items, such as wax sticks and wax rolls, which are taking longer to arrive—or the cost is just too much for their spa partners to absorb. Rimbey at Sacred Earth Botanicals agrees and has experienced "numerous supply chain issues, from bottles, pumps, and raw ingredients, since the onset of the pandemic, as well as inbound and outbound freight delays. "We also have to get new labels for our products due to the inclusion of new ingredients," he says, "[and we] had to start using some new suppliers— and they have their own challenges." Diego Pekarek, CEO at Truth Treatments, in Broomfield, Colorado, is in the thick of the supply chain shortage too, although he comes from the skin care side. And, as he does business in Spain as well as the US, he recently hired a local operations manager to handle supply chain logistics due to a reduction of shipments out of China and "incredible" shipping price increases, which skyrocketed from the norm of $2,300 to a whopping $23,000 during the "crazy" 2021 Christmas season. "Right now, the biggest challenge is everything that is coming from China and also [with] some key ingredients like Retinol," he says. "[These events] forced us to hold larger inventories to avoid a shortage [of ] components and raw materials. All of this translates to [needing] more working capital." To navigate the extra time needed to obtain product and supplies, Lester says The Spa Mart is more diligent at anticipating needs. "Freight costs and shipping lead times have caused some disruption to new spa openings," he says. "Therefore, we plan farther out in advance for these openings and work diligently to monitor availability of everything needed to open a spa." PRICE INCREASES MAY BE INEVITABLE None of the wholesalers we spoke to are immune to inflation or price increases. According to Lester, supply chains are still catching up after COVID and many of their vendors have increased prices for the first time in years. "The cost of freight due to increased oil prices has definitely increased the cost of doing business," he says. "[But] we do our best to negotiate prices and shipping." And their goal is to keep increases in line with the percentage of increase their own vendors use. "We constantly monitor our prices against other distributors and Amazon to make sure we are competitive and fair," he says. "We have held our free shipping thresholds and are very mindful of the most used products and supplies by spas to ensure we keep our spa partners' cost of goods as low as possible." For Pekarek, transportation costs, components, and ingredients are up 50 percent in some cases. "We will have a new price list coming soon," he says. "Unfortunately, the cost of doing business is higher than ever. We think the global situation will not get better soon. Probably we will not see any change during 2022." Rimbey says the cost of doing business has doubled on some of their raw ingredients at Sacred Earth, while rising fuel costs have increased their transportation costs by about 20 percent. "Because we use only certified organic oils," he says, "we are always at a price disadvantage, so we have always worked hard to keep our prices "Price is always important, but now, equally important is availability." Angie Patrick, Oakworks