How Tyndale Minimizes the Impact of Supply Chain Challenges: Part 3 – Price

February 4, 2022

Suppliers everywhere are faced with unprecedented global supply chain challenges resulting in significant product delays. In any business, these challenges often stem from labor, manufacturing, shipping, and productivity issues and lead to increased raw material costs and the inability to finish products or ship them to those who need them. In this three-part series, you’ll learn how Tyndale minimizes the impact of supply chain challenges by investing in our inventory, retaining and growing our own workforce, and preparing for future economic uncertainty.

In this third and final post in the series, we share how we’ve worked to limit price increases, so you get the protective clothing you need, when you need it, at a competitive price. Let’s hear from Tyndale’s VP of Technical, Scott Margolin:

Inventory, Buying Early, and Choice

As Scott says, you don’t necessarily need to subscribe to The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or read news from The International Monetary Fund to know that inflation is two or three times what anyone thought it would be a year ago. This is reflected in the skyrocketing cost of raw materials and finished products. Fortunately, Tyndale is working diligently to minimize cost increases to the companies and wearers we serve.

As mentioned in Part 1, one way Tyndale is mitigating the impact of cost increases on you is by increasing our investment of on-hand inventory of our own product line and brands we distribute. In fact, we currently have $35M in inventory on our shelves. What does that mean for you? Quick delivery – the more products we have on our shelves, the more likely you are to receive what you want when you want it.

For Tyndale-manufactured garments, we were proactive in stocking up on thread, buttons, and other components needed to make clothing (collectively called “findings”) at a six-month supply ahead of time – so we could lock in pricing at a lower rate in many cases. We did the same for labor costs, to the extent possible.

Choice is another major component of keeping costs down in this market. Besides being the number one driver of employee comfort, choice also offers benefits related to price. If pricing goes up in a program with only 2-4 garment options, you’re more likely to be impacted. Alternately, if pricing goes up in a program that has ample choice – for example, 12-15 7oz, 88/12, CAT 2 garments – you might see that some brands in the program increase significantly while others do not, allowing wearers to leverage their purchasing power and choose items that are less expensive.

In short, we’re doing everything we can to minimize the impact of price increases in this challenging environment, namely by being proactive and having a business model that promotes choice. We hope you enjoyed our series on how we are working hard to overcome the challenges facing the industry and minimizing its impact on you – the companies and workers we serve.