What is happening? Hasn't KoRo just reduced its prices?
At KoRo, we review our prices at regular intervals in order to offer the best possible and, above all, fair value for money at all times. Unlike many supermarkets, we don't want to be rigid here, but want to react flexibly and adjust prices continuously if necessary. We therefore pass on changes in raw material prices or our internal costs to our customers when they actually occur. In May, this led to a price reduction for many products.
At the time, we deliberately did not factor in the increased raw material prices that were expected on the market, but only wanted to react when these cost increases had a concrete impact on KoRo. This is now the case, meaning that we now have to increase prices again for a large number of products.
Why are prices rising at KoRo?
As you probably know, the market for energy and food in particular has changed drastically since Russia's attack on Ukraine. Inflation rates of 12.7 % for food and 38.0 % for energy (with a corresponding impact on transportation) (source: German Federal Statistical Office) have also left their mark on us. In short, our costs for procuring goods have risen significantly. This also comes at a time when online retail tends to flatten out after the end of most coronavirus measures and the start of a hot summer - which puts additional pressure on profitability. We are therefore responding with a small price increase, which will enable us to cover some of the increased costs.
Which products are affected?
Despite the price increases, we have made sure that we continue to offer you a fair price-performance ratio for every product. This is why there are no across-the-board adjustments. Instead, we look at each product individually and thus ensure that there are no huge price jumps, but only slight increases. The average adjustment across the entire range is less than 5% - but this can of course be higher at individual product level.
Why are prices rising on August 8?
This is primarily for operational reasons. In principle, we would like to change the prices directly. Adjusting the prices across all 16 KoRo countries (yes, sometimes we can't believe that there are already so many!) and ensuring that no errors creep in here requires a certain amount of lead time - especially as it is the vacation season. However, we have decided to inform you as early and transparently as possible.
What's next for prices?
Customers who have known us for some time know that we will continue to monitor prices and costs and - as soon as raw material and energy prices allow - will also reduce prices. However, transparent communication also means that it is currently impossible to predict whether costs will rise further in the future. In any case, we will keep you informed.
Further effects of the war in Ukraine
In addition to increased costs, the war in Ukraine naturally presents us with further challenges in the supply chains: we sourced some products from Russia and Ukraine before the war. In the case of Ukraine, some supply chains have simply broken down, although we would of course have liked to continue using them. In the case of Russia, it would have been possible for us to continue sourcing the raw materials, but we made a conscious decision not to do so and are currently looking for alternative supply chains outside Russia. In individual cases, this may mean that products such as pine nut butter are temporarily sold out. We hope you will understand that in the current situation we are refraining from ordering from Russia for obvious reasons.
