Important Notice About Helium
A note about our helium pricing and why it changed overnight
We have been proud to offer competitive balloon pricing for nearly four decades. What has happened to helium costs in recent months is unlike anything we have seen in that time and we want to explain it to you honestly.
What happened
Major gas distributors worldwide have invoked force majeure on all existing retail contracts. In plain language: every agreement we had with our helium supplier — the pricing, the volumes, the terms — has been declared null and void, with no warning and no transition period.
Force majeure is a legal clause that allows one party to walk away from a contract when extraordinary circumstances make it impossible to honour. It is rarely used. In the helium industry, it has essentially never been used at this scale.
This happened because governments around the world are taking direct control of raw helium supplies. Geopolitical events have restricted the flow of gas from production sites to distributors, and distributors have passed the full weight of that restriction onto retailers immediately, with no time to prepare.
Why we could not absorb it this time
Over the past two years, helium prices have risen every year. Each time, we quietly absorbed as much of the increase as we could and restructured our business to protect our clients from the full impact. We were able to do that because those increases, while painful, came with some notice and were manageable in scale.
This increase is different. A rise of more than 30% overnight, with no warning and no contract protection, is not something any small business can absorb. If we tried, we would not be in business long enough to serve you at all. The only responsible path forward is to reflect the real cost of helium in our pricing.
What we are doing about it
Our commitments to you during this period
- We are increasing prices as modestly as we can, only what is necessary to stay viable, nothing more.
- We are actively promoting air filled balloon designs including garlands, columns, and organic arches as a beautiful, on trend alternative that is completely unaffected by helium costs.
- We will always be transparent with you about what is driving any change in our pricing. You deserve to know why.
A personal note
We know price increases are never welcome news, especially when you are planning a celebration. We have not made this decision lightly. It has been made for us by forces entirely outside our control, at a level that goes all the way up to governments and global gas supply chains.
What we can control is how we treat you through it. We are the same business we have always been, with the same commitment to quality and the same people behind it. We are grateful for your loyalty and your understanding, and we will keep earning both.