During our 27 years of business, we have interacted with various types of companies and businesses. Our partners are varied in their size, market segment and needs. Some of the we found through our own efforts, others found us by looking for a reliable production partner. Whichever the way we came to be log home suppliers for our partner, we are grateful for their trust and proud to have been the choice. They have joined our worldwide partner network and now we collaborate successfully.
From all these experiences, we simply have to share some things to watch for when picking your own production partner. Be it us, or another producer, there are general guidelines to follow when picking your own private label home decor manufacturers. In this blog post, we would like to share our own insights into what a business should look at when picking their partners and what they should consider on their own end of the business.
Target customer
Make sure that the production partner you are considering is capable of producing timber products that cater to your specific target customer. Go through their portfolio, see what contemporary log home designs they offer as standards. See what their best-sellers are – these are likely to be produced often and you will be able to receive them faster. If you don’t find exactly what you’re looking for, reach out to them and discuss bespoke production. If you plan large volumes, some producers will be willing to add your order to their production line and supply you without trouble.
If your clients often demand individual orders, custom designs, even differing dimensions, make sure that the potential production partner can fulfil these orders. Not every producer has the capability to shift their planned production for a bespoke order and you should discuss this aspect first. Also, if the producer offers made to measure log cabins or other structures already, then the only point of discussion becomes order fulfilment time.
Materials and order details
After you have established that the producer is capable of providing you with volume and design, time to consider materials that the producer is using. Classic log cabins and glulam log houses are two different things and require different materials. It’s important to find out which timber the partner is using for their products. If it’s important to you, inquire about sustainability and how it’s achieved in their production. Find out the reasons behind why the producer chose that exact timber, so you can then transmit this information to your customers. These days, clients get very sensitive about topics of ecology and sustainability, so the more you can keep them informed, the safer and more in control they will feel.
Next on the importance topics are the order details. Find out how inclusive the log home kits that the producer manufactures are. See how many changes can be included into a standard kit. If you are looking for timber structures that are delivered to you pre-built, discuss this possibility with your potential partner. For example, Eurodita delivers our camping pods completely pre-built, even with electrical wiring already present. That is a luxury we are happy to deliver to our partners. We also some of our BBQ huts pre-build, based on order. If this is important to you, inquire your potential partner about the possibilities of pre-assembled or pre-built products.
Delivery terms
If you are planning to handle your own delivery, you will need to inform your potential partner of this and figure out how they pack their timber buildings. For example, in our case, we flat pack them to fit a regular truck or a shipping container, depending on the distance traveled. On occasion, we ship a product pre-assembled and that requires special delivery terms.
However, if you want to let your partner handle it, make sure they are up to the task. Although the world is increasingly globalised and shipping lines take merchandise virtually anywhere, there may be issues on border crossing and other fees. Make sure your potential partner has the experience of handling deliveries, or has a reliable transporting partner of their own. For example, we provide delivery service to our partner network through our own truck fleet. in cases where distance is an issue, we also working with reliable shipping partners.
Final notes
While there may not be a totally perfect partner out there, there’s always one close to perfection. From our experience, the hardest part is the beginning of the partnership, where a lot of things are not ironed out yet. However, with time, commitment and trust, true partnership can be established. Our current, strong partner network is a testament to our customer-first approach to working with said partners and the reason our partners stayed with us.