Raleigh ups prices due to Brexit

Raleigh is to increase its prices by 10 percent from August 1. This will apply to both bikes and accessories.

BikeBiz reports that the change was announced in an email to Raleigh dealers. The firm’s sales and marketing director, Pippa Wibberley, cited "recent volatility in currency exchange rates against the British pound" as being the reason for the increase.

Wibberley says that the cost of many imported products has risen and writes, "as we bring these products in to the UK on a daily basis this has impacted the cost of these products to us very quickly."

Prices for UK-manufactured products supplied by Raleigh will remain unchanged.

When road.cc spoke to Clive Gosling, marketing manager at CSG (which looks after Cannondale, Charge, Sugoi and other brands) about the impact of the decision to leave the EU last month, he said that the result wouldn’t have an immediate effect on the price of goods as 2016 stocks were already bought and paid for.

“We are, however, just about to price the 2017 bikes that we will launch to dealers early August. We will have to speculate what the cost of these will be, based on the devalued GB pound against the US dollar, as most bicycles, parts, accessories and clothing are bought in US dollars.

“We will have to consider where the currency looks like settling rather than looking at the knee-jerk Brexit level – which, of course, is speculation on our part.

“Short term, I think 2017 bikes will be marginally higher priced. Longer term, bikes can be sourced out of markets where there are current EU dumping levies so it could mean lower factory prices to offset the currency if it doesn’t recover, hence no net increases over current prices. It might even make prices lower down the line.

“It’s all a step into the unknown but we don’t think you will see the dramatic price increases that people are speculating.”