2006 to finish on much stronger note

SANDY PARKER REPORT, VOL. 30, ISSUE 42, DEC. 25, 2006
The following extract is reproduced with permission from Sandy Parker Reports, Weekly International Fur News. Sandy Parker has been covering the fur industry for more than four decades. For most of that time he has published a weekly newsletter, detailing results of international pelt auctions, wholesale price trends, business developments and movements in the trade, as well as economic and political activities that may impact on it.
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International Fur News
with Sandy Parker
2006 to finish on much stronger note
WITH THE APPROACH OF THE YEAR’S END, it is now evident that 2006 will finish on a much stronger note than the previous year, particularly in terms of skin prices, but also from a profit standpoint. To paraphrase an old adage, it’s difficult to lose money in a rising market and fur prices have been rising steadily for four consecutive years. It was too early to tell how the year’s retail volume would wind up, considering that there was still another week of important December selling, but most American retailers surveyed were confident their calendar year totals would at least equal last year’s. Reports from Western Europe were not quite as bright, but China and Russia – whose demand has been fueling the price increases – were said to be doing just fine.
ONCE AGAIN, RETAILERS’ FEARS THAT HIGHER GARMENT PRICES WOULD ENCOUNTER CONSUMER RESISTANCE have proved to have been unwarranted. That apprehension first arose three years ago, when wholesale garment prices shot up about 30%, causing retailers to pull in their horns. Although this was at least partly for budgetary reasons, they also feared their customers would balk at the increases. Since then, however, they have learned that few fur customers – unlike grocery shoppers – remember prices from one season to the next.
Their biggest problem, according to the stores, are conventional long mink coats, which traditionally have been the backbone of their business, but in recent years have become extremely weather-sensitive. Although fashion pieces and better coats above $7,000 retail have been checking out, it is the $4,000 to $6,000 range that has not been moving well. What are selling are sheared furs, including mink, beaver and shearling, mainly in jackets and short coats, which may be taken as a commentary in connection with today’s lifestyles and further explain the apparent lack of interest in full-length mink coats.
IN THIS ISSUE:
Dec. Retail Sales Called Spotty
Mink, Foxes Firm in Finland
Wild Furs Up at North Bay Sale
For extracts from back issues of Sandy Parker Reports see News Index. Subscribers can access an archive of complete issues at www.sandyparker.com.
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