Jabra forced to hike prices after Brexit vote

Headset and 'hearables' vendor claims to be "very open" to dropping prices again when it can

Hearables vendor Jabra has vowed to drop its prices again as soon as it can, after Brexit-fuelled currency fluctuations forced the vendor to hike prices by 10 per cent.

From 1 October this year, the Danish firm - which prices its UK products based on the euro price, but sources its components in dollars - increased UK prices by 10 per cent on average across its portfolio.

Jabra's UK and Ireland managing director Nigel Dunn (pictured) told CRN that the firm has actually dropped its prices on two occasions by four per cent and six per cent respectively over the last 18 months, meaning the current price tags are not out of the ordinary.

"The big problem we had is that mainland Europe in the main uses the euro, so we were running out of kilter with the euro so customers would feel cheated that they were more expensive in the UK or the other way around," he said. "Therefore it might mean people come to the UK to buy products. Whilst that's not illegal or anything, it's counterproductive. We had to move in line with the drop in the euro. We did it on average by 10 per cent from 1 October.

"We've told our channel we will watch it very carefully. Over the last 18 months we dropped our prices twice so it's about the same now in total. We've gone back to where we were 18 months ago. We're very open to dropping our prices when we can. We dropped four and five per cent respectively in the last 18 months."

Last week, Jabra held its EMEA partner conference in Athens, during which it told partners details about upcoming changes to its partner programme.

Fellow hearables vendor Plantronics has recently been embroiled in a number of legal battles with resellers around brand protection.

Dunn said that Jabra has not had similar problems but said the new partner programme will prevent any issues arising.

"If I look at what our competitor has been doing - they've had big problems this year controlling the market as you guys illustrated very well," he said. "We don't get that problem but we do foresee a time when that could be an issue for us. So this is all about making sure that is protected and some of the online guys can be rogues. So we are making sure we are ahead of the curve. So that's a very important announcement for us."

Elsewhere at its recent partner gathering, Jabra unveiled a new brand and gave partners a glimpse into what it believes the future will be, when it claims more and more IoT devices will be controlled via hearable technology, rather than just on a smartphone.

Further, the vendor is looking to better address the retail market by working closely with the channel and retailers.

Dunn insisted the move to work with retailers will not be at the detriment of its partners.

"It's always a concern and of course we were very nervous about it. But we've done some rebranding on the business side and we have made them retail ready. You order them as separate SKUs. They will be specifically for retail bricks and mortar. So I am hoping there won't be a great deal of crossover."