where there’s smoke there’s fire

Is there a price increase on Nikon products in the UK for 2009? Can anyone confirm this rumor?

At least in Australia, Nikon was nice to send a warning in advance. Was there such a warning in the UK?

Here is a message from a reader (posted December 30th):

I too was in *** (Glasgow, Scotland, UK) today hoping to buy a D700, none in stock and was told I’d be 48th in the queue if I wanted one, but they could not tell me when I’d be able to get it.

The salesman then went on to tell me that his buyer has informed him that Nikon will increase prices on certain items by as much as 20% in January.

He also said that I would be able to get the current price if I was to pay in full today.  I’m not sure if I don’t smell a rat ?  That said however if the D700 was to go up by 20% (circa £300), it’d be off my shopping list.  I may pull the trigger and just buy from Amazon who have them in stock.

We are starting the New Year with a bad news.

First was Canada (confirmed) then the UK (not confirmed yet) and now Australia – this is the letter Nikon sent out down under:

Dear Nikon partner,

Nikon has experienced an amazing year of growth. New levels of exposure for the Nikon brand has been achieved through activities such as the Nikon INDY 300, Westfield promotions and continued advertising and consumer promotions.  This combined with amazing new products has been driving consumers into your stores and has ensured Nikon’s ongoing health in the Australian market.

Nikon has continued this strong success despite the challenges facing businesses in the current financial climate. The nature of these market challenges has meant that costs have significantly increased and accordingly there is a need to review the current prices available from Nikon Australia on many products.

However, in recognition of the growth being achieved we have decided to postpone the increases until February 1st, 2009.  The proposed February price list and summary of changes is supplied with this letter.

Nikon is committed to ensuring the momentum continues.  To help achieve this, the current supply price on all existing backorders placed before February 1st will be honoured by Nikon until March 31st, 2009. Any existing backorder will maintain its price in our system and new orders that we cannot immediately supply will be backordered at current price.  After this date all issued products and backorders will be converted to the new price structure.

If you do not wish for these items to be supplied at the higher price you will need to change the orders prior to them being shipped after April 1st, 2009.  Due to an expected increase in demand Nikon Australia cannot guarantee supply of all items prior to April 1st, 2009.  We will of course endeavuor to supply all backorders as soon as possible.

I encourage you to take advantage of this chance to give outstanding value to consumers across the Nikon range and capitalise on future profit opportunities.

If you have any questions about this revision or wish to place an order at this month’s prices please contact your account manager.

Thank you for your support in 2008.  We look forward to supporting you during this all important period and throughout 2009.

Regards
Nikon Australia

Most of the prices seems to be up about 10-20%, which is significant in my opinion.