Industrial action at the Port of Felixstowe could have an impact on the availability of goods, including Everything Dinosaur’s range of prehistoric animal models and figures in the crucial sales period leading up to Christmas.

Recently, staff at Felixstowe Port, one of the busiest ports in Europe, started industrial action in a dispute over pay. If the dispute is not resolved and further strike action follows, this could have an impact on the range of items available and inventory in the vital retail period – quarter 4.

The Port of Felixstowe in Suffolk
The Port of Felixstowe manages more than 4 million TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) per year, including prehistoric animal models and figures destined for Everything Dinosaur’s UK warehouse. Picture credit: Port of Felixstowe.

The Port of Felixstowe

The Port of Felixstowe is the UK’s biggest and busiest container port, and one of the largest in Europe. It handles over 4 million TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Units) per year, around 2,000 container ships, including some of the biggest vessels afloat, unload at Felixstowe each year. The port is a vital component of Britain’s commercial infrastructure. If industrial action continues into the autumn, then this could cause significant disruption to already stretched supply chains in the lead up to Christmas.

All sorts of sectors of the UK economy could be affected including legal importers of prehistoric animal models and figures such as Everything Dinosaur.

A spokesperson from the UK-based company commented:

“We continue to monitor the situation and we are working closely with our freight forwarding contacts to mitigate the impact of any disruption to supplies and minimise any inconvenience for our customers.”

Some of the prehistoric animal figures stocked by Everything Dinosaur.
Examples of the huge range of dinosaur and prehistoric animal models and figures stocked by Everything Dinosaur. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Shop Early for Christmas

Whilst alternative ports are a possibility, continued and prolonged industrial action at Felixstowe could have a knock-on effect for the UK supply chain and result in a shortage of products available in shops. Commentators have advised that customers shop early for Christmas as one way of minimising the potential impact of these strikes.

The spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur explained that as the company had their own warehouse, they had been able to build up considerable stock of prehistoric animal models and figures as well as dinosaur toys. It was stressed that deliveries to the warehouse were still taking place.

Shipping containers at the Port of Felixstowe (UK)
The Port of Felixstowe is Britain’s biggest and busiest container port, and one of the largest in Europe. Amongst the huge volumes of goods handled by the Port, there are shipping containers with dinosaur and prehistoric animal models shipped into the UK by Everything Dinosaur. Picture credit: Port of Felixstowe.

The Everything Dinosaur spokesperson added:

“We do have shipments arriving at Felixstowe and there are shipments already scheduled and further ones being planned. We have been able to build up our inventory and we currently have thousands of items in stock which should provide some reassurance to our customers.”

Everything Dinosaur acknowledges the assistance of the Head of Corporate Affairs at the Port of Felixstowe in the compilation of this article.