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[Editor's note, updated article with Secretlab spokesperson's statement]

Singaporean gaming chair company Secretlab has raised its chair prices by 10 per cent worldwide, it announced in an email to customers on Sep. 24.

The increased prices took effect on Monday (Sep. 27).

However, the price increases vary slightly across different markets, with Singapore's prices increasing the least.

A company spokesperson told Mothership: "We've consciously increased Singapore's prices by the least — only about S$30 for most products, or a five per cent increase."

Secretlab cited increasing costs and their inability to absorb them as reasons for the price increase.

Increasing prices of aluminium, steel and shipping freight rates

Secretlab said in its email that they are "committed to using only the best materials and shipping partners" for their products, but these prices have "increased tremendously".

It added that the past few months have been "immensely challenging".

According to The Straits Times (ST), Secretlab makes one million chairs a year that are sold to 60 countries.

Secretlab said that while support from their customers have helped, they are unable to cope with the increasing prices over the past year.

Secretlab said that shipping freight rates have "skyrocketed more than 600 per cent since 2019".

They included some index charts in their email:

They also said that prices of aluminium and steel, which are major components in Secretlab chairs, have also increased by "over 60 per cent".

"Misconception" that Secretlab has high profit margins

In answering the question "Why can't you absorb the additional costs?", Secretlab said in its email that it is "simply not true" that their profit margins are "insanely high".

They added that they typically made about 17 per cent profit per chair, after factoring in research and development, product development, manufacturing, and operating costs.

With these recent cost increases, Secretlab said that they are "currently near 0 per cent" profit.

As a result, they are unable to continue at their current prices and maintain the same level of quality without "affecting [their] normal business operations".

Secretlab added that the price increase will stay depending on how long the increased costs remain.

It added: "We’ve had to increase prices slightly before, but we also readjusted them downward after a few months as costs began to normalise."

Opened new headquarters in August

In August this year, Secretlab opened its new headquarters in Braddell, and announced that it would be hiring 100 employees in Singapore to fuel its growth.

Ian Ang, Secretlab's co-founder and CEO, said that it has invested S$10 million in setting up the new headquarters and research and development (R&D) centre, according to ST.

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Top photos by Alfie Kwa