It’s no secret that COVID has had major impacts on nearly every industry, and the jigsaw puzzle world is no exception. Due to increased demand for wood substrates primarily within the construction industry, as well as global shipping pressures emanating from container ship backlogs and rolling Chinese blackouts, our costs have risen dramatically over the past year. Unfortunately, the impact of these supply chain issues on our costs is expected to continue to rise throughout 2021.
We've done our best to maintain our prices at 2019-2020 benchmarks but the circumstances listed above require us to raise our prices. Our intent is to raise our prices gradually and only as necessary. On August 1, we will be implementing a small price increase (~5%) on all in-stock puzzles, proportional to puzzle size. We do anticipate doing a similar bump up in September but will make a similar announcement beforehand.
This increase has a profound impact on our ability to produce more puzzles, as well as lean into the positive changes we continue to strive for as a company:
- Providing you with award-winning, world-class wooden laser-cut jigsaw puzzles, while supporting charitable partnerships, living wage employment and our 2022 goal for B Corp certification.
- Supporting the growth of sustainability-focused Canadian jobs by transitioning our entire packaging supply chain to Canada, all while continuing to hold true to our commitment to environmentally sustainable packaging.
This change takes effect August 1, 2021. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us by email at puzzled@stumpcraft.com - we’re here to answer any questions you may have.
If the timing makes sense for you, now is the best time to snag one of the StumpCraft puzzles off your wishlist!
In other news, at my own request I've instructed my team and family to lock me up in a comfy and undisclosed location to incentivize the completion of my next puzzle design, featuring Steve Coffey's "Morning". Reports from the self-imposed Fortress of Solitude suggest an end-of-August release date. Our goal is to cut and box enough puzzles to satisfy our Back-in-Stock notification list. If you haven't put yourself on the list, there's still time!
Lots more news coming in the weeks ahead - expect a flurry of activity as we come out of our summer holidays and start prepping for a full slate of fall & winter craft shows!
