In a bid to tackle a “turbulent” supply chain for a range of its products,  fittings manufacturer Blum has made changes to ordering and taken the “unprecedented” step of not opening new trade accounts.

According to the company the surge in demand experienced in the last six months of 2020 has increased and despite investment in production, the company is facing a global shortage of raw materials.

Sales and marketing director of Blum UK David Sanders commented: “Unfortunately, although our production capacity is now ready and able to meet the demand, we are facing a worldwide shortage of the basic raw materials.

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“This situation is obviously out of our control and has resulted in a turbulent supply chain picture over a range of products.

“We anticipate that this situation will continue throughout the rest of 2021, continuing to create uncertainty around supply.”

Blum has instigated a revised ordering procedure on all key product lines across its ranges, for customers who buy direct including distributors.

On each key product line, the company will take an average monthly usage per customer and that will be the amount which can be ordered each month.

Any order going above the figure will be placed into a stock allocation process and if there is sufficient local stock holding will be despatched, but with a three-day delay.

If there is not enough local stock holding, it will be placed on back order and delivered at a later date.

David Sanders explained: “The system has been put in place so as to give a fair and equitable distribution of stock to all of our partners who have shown loyalty to our brand over many years.

“As further commitment to our loyal longstanding partners we have taken the unprecedented decision to not open any new trade accounts until further notice, so as to make sure that the stock we do have is solely allocated to our existing customer base.”

Because of the supply chain disruption, the cost of raw material has also increased but Blum will not apply a price increase in 2021.

However, the company reported it will have “no option” but to increase its prices in January 2022.