I don’t want to write this post; but, I must. Although you probably don’t want to pay more for Saltspring Soapworks products, the title of this post is accurate. The price of some of our goods is going up.
If you look back at the past 10 years (actually, more like 20), you’ll see that our prices have remained almost the same. Sure, the Apothika Natural Skin Care line showed a price bump, but that’s an exception. So, because we haven't done incremental increases over the past 15 years, we have to do one correction to better reflect what it takes to create a good product.
A handful of different factors affect our cost structure. First, are the ingredients we choose. We buy high quality ingredients, as we believe this is what you expect from us. Meanwhile, we’re always looking for better ones—so our soaps and skincare products continually improve. We don’t cut corners, and this impacts the price of our goods.
We also know that to do our best work, we need to make investments. Some of these are for operational matters. We’re working to provide you with more functional packaging that’s nice to pack, hold, and use. Additionally, we are putting money into workflow tools/technologies to help deliver a product that matches our promises.
There’s a human consideration as well. We’re a small company, and we’re choosing to stay that way. This means continuing to hire people we look upon as family—which involves fair pay. By putting money into ourselves and our people, we come to work ready to give you our best. This is how we can we make our soap, as we personally pack your order by hand, and can pick up the phone to talk—when you have a concern.
We didn’t want to just spring this news on you. As such, we’re locking all prices until December 31st. Until that day, you can stock up on the products you love at the same prices as ever. So, if you’d like to save a few dollars, please place an order soon! I should also note that we’re unveiling some (we think) exciting changes in the months to come.
We’re updating all product names to better reflect the ingredients we use. Similarly, packaging will more clearly label what’s inside, so, you know exactly what you’re putting on your body. We’re also creating a page that provides simple explanations about the ingredients we use and and why we do.
There’s a lot more to come, in the months ahead. So, follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our newsletter to be one of the first to know! Thanks for your continued support over the past ~40 years. If you have any questions or concerns, I’d like to hear them. You can reach me here.
Thank you,
Gary Quiring
Soapmaker
Cover image of bath bombs courtesy of Kris Krüg.
1 comment
Bart Henkens
Dear Madam, Dear Sir,
My name is Bart and I live in Belgium. We had the pleasure of visiting Salt Spring Island last year and to discover your amazing products. We came home with a bag full and enjoyed everyone of them. So first of all : congratulations for doing such a great job !
Unfortunately our stock is running out now and that makes us quite sad. Is there any way we could convince you to ship an order to Belgium ? We really hope so…. Vest regards, Bart Henkens
Dear Madam, Dear Sir,
My name is Bart and I live in Belgium. We had the pleasure of visiting Salt Spring Island last year and to discover your amazing products. We came home with a bag full and enjoyed everyone of them. So first of all : congratulations for doing such a great job !
Unfortunately our stock is running out now and that makes us quite sad. Is there any way we could convince you to ship an order to Belgium ? We really hope so…. Vest regards, Bart Henkens