Volcanic Ash & Euro Worries Hit Branded Memory Stick Market

The market for branded USB memory sticks is under severe pressure at the moment from two unanticipated sources; the continued disruptions to flights caused by the volcanic ash drifting over the UK and the financial markets worries over the state of the European economy.

Just a few months ago the sky was clear and blue and free of ash and no one gave any consideration to a few strangely named volcanoes in Iceland. With a few exceptions the flights operated by couriers like UPS, TNT and DHL were all flying in and out of the UK with boring regularity and shipments of branded memory sticks from our factories were arriving on time every day. Today there is a nervous air of uncertainty about things.

At the height of the volcanic disruption some orders were being delayed for up to a week and when you’ve got hard and tight deadlines to work to this is a nightmare. Fortunately where there were real issue for our clients we were able to work with them and provide solutions from our UK stock but not every supplier is in this fortunate position.

Today a couple of weeks on from the height of the problems we are again faced with the spectre of further airport closures and restrictions in UK airspace. Not a helpful situation in an industry that really does work on a “just in time” basis.

As if further delays to shipments were not enough the Pound (£) has slumped against the Dollar ($) on continuing worries over the state of Europe’s finances and a widening trade gap deficit! Today the £ is struggling to make it above $1.44. Last week we expected it to break back through $1.5 and in our wildest dreams we’d even hoped it would start to climb back towards the heady days of $1.8 we were spoilt with not so long ago.

So we now have the double whammy effect of climbing prices and uncertainty over delivery times. Who’d be a supplier of branded memory sticks in this market? Well at USB2U we like a challenge and despite all the apparent adversity we’re still confident we can offer not only some of the best prices in the market but we can also give you as much reassurance as we can about delivery. Of course we can’t compete against the forces of Mother Nature but we do monitor the situation daily and we do use a range of couriers to give us the best chance of ensuring any “open routes” are used. Failing that we always carry UK stock as a contingency.