Soap Prices?

[Bubbles Galore]

I was just wondering if anyone has been notified that their chemical prices are going to increase substantially. I use Car Choice chemicals from my distributor Washing Equipment Technologies and they just sent me a letter saying that soap prices are going up 45%! When I get home I will type out the letter since I can't remember the details right now. Just curious what some other operators out there are experiencing.

Thanks!

 

[DiamondWash]

Time to switch to Tide or maybe Dawn with it's Grease Cutting Formula

 

[MEP001]

Our supplier is going up 15% on liquids, 30% on powders. It's not a surprise since so many ingredients are derived from petroleum, not to mention the cost of processing and transporting everything several times.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Guess I am glad I loaded up from KR at the end of June with their buy 3 get one free sale.

 

[RykoPro]

We have not had a chemical price increase in over three years. As a distributor we have the option to sell below the Ryko list price.

 

[jeffs]

out of site

Just got our price increase. Powder increase by 70.00 per drum and liquids increase by average of 15 %. I use Scotch Plaid for my washes I spent 51784.00 last year on chemicals only. This year it will be 80697.00 a differance of 28913.00. I can survive this if my wife cuts her spending. I just dont want to be the one to tell her too.

 

[MEP001]

We also use Scotch Plaid - one of their powdered soaps increased 100%. I'm just glad I had already quit using that one.

There are a lot of products out there that work well and aren't expensive, sometimes even within the same company you're using. Some of the hyper concentrates, for example, can save a lot of money over the standard stuff. A good example is the Scotch Plaid strawberry foam brush, which was $36 a pail. If I used that, I'd go through 8 a month, but I use the hyper strawberry foam brush at $120 a pail. It lasts a month, so right there it's saving about $160 a month.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

jeffs that is a 55% increase, I think it's time to reward the suppliers that can keep the prices lower, and ask suppliers for bigger discounts. If you are experiencing a downturn in business, there are plenty of brands of soap that can get the job done for less, and produce good results.

 

[soapy]

I posted a couple of months ago about Dow chemical taking a huge increase in chemicals. Since they sell to most of the chemical companies I think you will see all the suppliers go up.

 

[Bubbles Galore]

In the letter they sent me they listed Dow specifically as one of the reasons for raising the prices. They said that Dow raised their prices 20% in June and another 25% in July.

 

[rph9168]

With the dramatic increase in raw materials chemical companies have two choices. They either increase their prices based on their new costs or reformulate the products they have. If your chemical pricing has not gone up I would be sure to check to see if the products you are using are performing as they have in the past. Chances are they have been reformulated which usually compromises performance.

 

[RykoPro]

Reformulation seems to be the quick answer for many smaller suppliers. When I first started in Michigan there was a company who had different mixes for the same product! I got tired of working on entire foam bath systems only to find poor soap quality, it got to the point everytime I would get a "foam bath" problem, I would bring my own soap for testing. I would show the customer how their soap was the problem, they would contact the supplier and they would assure the customer a "new" drum with the proper mix would be sent to the site.
I do know that Ryko has not reformulated any of their products in the past year. Any reformulating done before that was mostly development of new products like Rain Shield and Supreme Clean (one step alkaline used to replace two step acids). Ryko has been making their own chemicals for over 20 years and I have never seen a sacrafice in the quality of any chemical product.