Alisdair Gray : Shoe retailers may suffer as EU slaps import duties on China
16 Mar '06
2 min read
BRC Director : Alisdair Gray
Retail trade association British Retail Consortium (BRC) Director Alisdair Gray warns that these duties could lead to job losses. He says: “Currently, the average net margin for retailers is around 5 percent.
When the new duties are imposed, shoe retailers will do their utmost to keep prices stable by finding new sources of product. However, in the short term, the duty will wipe out any net margin made on shoe sales.
On 16 March, the EU will vote to impose 19 percent duties on men's and women's shoe imports from China. The duties will commence in early April.
“The European Commission has called on retailers to absorb the cost of this duty into their margins. As the principal variable cost is labour, it appears that retailers are being asked to reduce the number of people they employ in order to support shoe producers in Italy.”
How the figures will look on a pair of shoes retailing at £35 RETAIL PRICE - £35.00 Import cost - £8.50 Extra EU duty of 19.4% - £1.60 VAT (average 20%) - £7.00 Overheads (average 32%) - £11.50 Labour (just under 20%) £6.80
TOTAL COSTS inc VAT - £35.40 Loss per pair of shoes - 40p
Mr Gray continues: “The British Retail Consortium believes that more work needs to be done by the Commission in analysing the overall effect of these duties on retailers in advance of a decision in July to impose 5 year duties on the shoe retail sector.”
-Ltd..jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Thermore (Far East) Ltd.")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited (TSllC Ltd)")
.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF)")
