“60 percent additional costs” – How companies react to enormously high costs

Dusseldorf In Carsten Zölzer’s 25 years of activity, costs have never increased as much as they do now. He is responsible for the German business of the printing ink manufacturer Huber Group, whose products are used for food packaging and newspapers, for example.

Annual cost increases of no more than two or three percent were normal, he reports. In the past twelve months, however, the increase was 60 percent. Zölzer says: “In the summer of 2021, freight costs shot up astronomically due to disruptions in the supply chains.”

Because of the war in the Ukraine, raw materials such as sunflower or linseed oil, which the company uses to produce paints, have become scarcer and more expensive. The medium-sized company was able to pass on almost all of the additional costs to its customers. “We had absolutely no other option, otherwise the company would have fallen into an existential crisis.”