gun now. brian is the owner of the company, his father founded it in 1931. 90 years later he can t help but wonder how he and his 14 employees can survive. recent supply chain problems. you have had four major price increases since december. that s right. the big guys control the marketplace. you don t pay, you don t get. you are out of business. it is not just paper. retail and construction are also feeling the pain. according to the national federation of independent business, half of small business owners report that supply chain disruptions are having a significant impact on their business. obviously a lot of this started with factory closures due to covid. yeah, the disruption like that can have a cascading effect throughout the supply chain. a professor of supply chain economics in new york city says the cascading effect has led to
shelves. so we re seeing as we reopen the economy and demand surged, firms haven t been able to keep up with production and also with shipping. so we re seeing these supply chain disruptions everywhere and they re driving prices higher. the big question for a lot of people is how long does this last? i mean, is there an end in sight? is there a solution beyond hiring more workers, which you have to find the people to fill those jobs? yeah. so i think this is going to take a while, unfortunately. don t forget china is hosting the olympics so they want blue skies so we ll continue to see factory closures there, which will continue to gum up supply chains. that s enough to gum up the entire supply chain no matter where you re ordering from in the world. i would expect this to last for another six months, certainly. could last beyond that. eventually, we should be able to iron out these supply chain disruptions and the upper pressure on prices should abate in the medium to long term. b
jeremy. first of all, if we focus on the uk to begin with, i understand part of the membership of your body have beenin membership of your body have been in discussions with the uk government about the crisis and how industry is coping. what can you tell us? how industry is coping. what can you tell us? that is right. the uk member can you tell us? that is right. the uk member is can you tell us? that is right. the uk member is the - the uk member is the energy intensive users group and they have been in discussions with the secretary of state to see what can be done to alleviate the enormous impact of the astonishingly unprecedentedly high power and gas prices on energy intensive industries. there has been some rather confusing messaging carving out from government but it does now look like something is going to happen. let be enough to stop factory closures and downs this winter? possibly some permanent ones if we are not getting through this. we don t know that yet. we re all wa
ainsley: everything is taking longer. lead times are normally two weeks. one business owner said. taking six weeks now. brian: build a bear doesn t seem so crazy, right? build your own. ainsley: thank you i got build a bear for my birthday. brian: don t have to get it off the ship. steve: the problem is can t get the part to build the bear. brian: just stuffing. steve: factory closures, covid outbreaks have closed a number of port terminals, that s the problem. big toy company that has 600 containers filled with toys. they can t get them unloaded. so they re just sitting off the coast. the other problem is, as you look at those containers on the ships. a year ago, each one of those containers would rent for $2,000. now they are going for $20,000 and, of course, the price is going to be passed onto the consumer. unfortunately, because of there aren t enough people to pick them up and make the stuff.