Looks like it's going to be a windfall for Clifton though, if the 2 examples I just looked at are anything to go by.
LV large shoulder plane up by £63 (39%), but Clifton No7 only goes up 14% to £260.
LNs low angle block plane rises by the same sort of level as Cliftons range, about 20%, to £134 odd, whilst the LV version is hiked by an eyewatering 39%.
We could go on like this for days, but it seems that LV stuff is going to be subject to much higher price rises than comparable items from other makers. It's not restricted to hand tools or stuff from the states either, a quick look at the Jet range for example sees rises of up to 26% (10" supersaw).
This seems like an odd way to do business to me, we all expected price rises, but these sorts of levels will make me shop much more carefully for my stuff. Gone are the days of buying from Axminster as a matter of course, and as far as LV is concerned it's a shame that the customer base in this country is so small compared to their home turf - even if everyone here stopped buying their kit I suspect they'd hardly notice. Shame really, there's few things that gets a company's attention like a sharp downturn in sales.
