We have some bad news regarding the pricing of our products sourced from the USA…
Updated (2/1/21): Good News! See below
This has been caused by a "trade war” between the US and the EU, originating in the aircraft industry, that spread to tariffs imposed on Scotch whiskey and French cheese, which has now moved to products sold by us and imported from the US.
This means that all imports from the US will have a 25% import tariff applied to them, for anything shipped after 10th November 2020.
We import from a huge number of American manufacturers, either directly ourselves or through UK distributors. These include Stern (pinballs), Hudson (shuffleboards), Rock-Ola (jukeboxes), Car Pool Tables (what is says), Incredible Technologies (Golden Tee golf games), Brunswick (pool tables and more), Diamond (pool tables), Namco (arcade games), and Hurricane (pool tables and shuffleboard).
How long this will last is unknown. It will be affected by a number of factors - mainly the US election and Brexit. It is thought that an agreement may be reached shortly, but both transitions mean that focus is elsewhere for now. This is also being slowed by all the COVID related issues facing everyone.
Our manufacturers and suppliers are busy trying to see if the tariffs can be minimised in any way, taking legal advice to ensure everything is above board.
As a result of the transient nature of this matter, we have decided to keep our pricing at pre-tariff levels. This is because we have stock of many of the products which we purchased and imported prior to 10th November, or because our suppliers feel that they will be able to find a solution to the tariff issue or they will shoulder part of the cost, along with us.
Unfortunately, some products will have to go up in price, and there’s nothing we can do about it. If you are interested in any products from any of these manufacturers then please speak to our sales team and they will investigate whether the product you are looking to purchase is either available from stock, or if the supplier has managed to find a “workaround”.
For orders placed with us, but being shipped after 10th November we are working on solutions to the tariff that will be imposed and we will have to pay once the product has landed in the UK. If your order is affected we will contact you to let you know the impact on the price. You will have the option to cancel your order if you wish, should there be an extra cost as a result of this.
We are really sorry that this will affect the price you will be paying to acquire some super cool games products to have fun in your home, all due to the US and EU falling out over tax subsidies to the aerospace industry. We’re as annoyed as you are.
We’ll keep this blog updated as we get news.
All the best.
Andy Beresford
Co-Founder and CEO
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Update (2/1/21): Tariffs Removed!
We are delighted to report that these short-lived tariffs have now been removed.
As reported in The Times on 9th December 2020:
Having checked the Gov.UK website this morning I am pleased to find that there are now no tariffs showing for Imports from the US:
This means that all the orders which we placed on hold can now be shipped without attracting any tariffs, and any customers waiting to place their order pending finding out about this issue can now go ahead and place their order.
Many thanks for your patience if you have been waiting for news on this.
All the best.
Andy Beresford
Co-Founder and CEO