Four programmes, with the numbers that mattered to the client.
Client names are withheld under NDA — several are direct competitors of each other. Everything else is as it happened, including the run we recommended rejecting.
Brand Builder
Copenhagen, DK
Design-led pet brand
A five-SKU branded launch at 120 units per SKU — after two factories quoted 3,000
The founder had finished art direction and a retail price, and had been told by two suppliers that custom colour meant 3,000 pieces per colourway plus a plate fee. The brand had budget for roughly 600 units in total.
What we did
- Re-specified four of the five SKUs onto existing tooling, keeping the silhouette the founder had designed.
- Moved differentiation into decoration and packaging, where minimums are 100 pieces rather than 3,000.
- Three sample rounds to land the Pantone match under D65 light; signed sample sealed and retained.
- One consolidated DDP shipment to a Copenhagen 3PL, retail-ready with EAN codes applied.
Units per SKU at launch
Branded SKUs live in 11 weeks
Reorder placed within 14 months
Tooling spend in year one
The packaging came back exactly as the print proof. That had never happened to us before.
DK
Founder
Design-led pet brand · Copenhagen
Metric |
Before |
After |
|---|---|---|
Shipments per month |
4 |
1 |
Freight cost index |
100 |
74 |
Customs entries per year |
48 |
12 |
Re-labelling at 3PL |
Every intake |
None |
Stockouts on core SKUs |
7 / year |
1 / year |
Twelve months before and after consolidation. Same suppliers, same SKU count.
Seller Engine
Texas, US
40 SKUs · monthly resupply
26% off the freight line without changing a single supplier
A seller with four established suppliers and no wish to leave them. The pain was operational: four shipments a month, four sets of documents, and hand re-labelling at their 3PL on every intake.
What we did
- Onboarded their existing factories into our Guangzhou consolidation warehouse — no supplier switch, no renegotiation.
- Rebuilt cartonisation to cut volumetric weight, then merged all four suppliers into one monthly cargo.
- Applied marketplace labels and polybags before departure, ending manual prep at the 3PL.
- Added AQL 2.5 inspection on their two highest-return SKUs, which halved the return rate on those lines.
Trend Direct
Dubai, AE
Three trend SKUs tested at 150 units each before any volume commitment
A regional distributor needed a hero product for the season but could not risk a container on an untested item. We shipped three candidates by air at 150 units each, with the volume price already agreed and held for 90 days.
Trial quantity per SKU
150 pcs
Air transit to test
9 days
Winning SKU sell-through
81% in 5 weeks
Follow-on volume order
4,200 pcs
Two candidates were dropped without argument. That is the point of a test order: cheap information, not a commitment.
Quality control
Manchester, UK
The inspection we recommended rejecting — eight days before a Q4 launch
Pre-shipment AQL found seam failure at 41 N against a 60 N specification on 14 of 125 sampled pieces. Major defects exceeded the accept number. We held the shipment the same day.
- Defect log and photos to the client within four hours of inspection.
- Rework plan agreed with the factory: full re-stitch, double-locked seam, at factory cost.
- Re-inspection at our cost; passed at 68 N average pull strength.
- Air-freight upgrade on 30% of the order to protect the launch date; sea for the balance.
What the programmes add up to
Brands and sellers supplied since 2018
Average freight saving after consolidation
Shipments released on first inspection
Clients reorder within six months
Feedback from buyers on their second and third order
We were quoted 3,000 pieces per colour elsewhere. Petlland launched five SKUs at 120 units each and the finish matched our sample.
DK
Founder, design-led pet brand
Copenhagen · 3rd reorder
Four shipments a month became one. Our freight line dropped by roughly a quarter and nobody at our 3PL re-labels cartons any more.
US
Operations lead, ecommerce seller
Texas · 40 SKUs
They told us to reject a run we had already sold in. Expensive advice, correct advice — we would not have recovered from the returns.
UK
Category buyer
Manchester · Q4 launch
The monthly trend brief is the only supplier email I read properly. It has price bands, not adjectives.
AE
Regional distributor
Dubai · quarterly volume
Two sample rounds and the Pantone was right. The third round was only because I changed my mind about the box.
DE
Owner, independent pet retail
Berlin · 4 SKUs
Landed cost was quoted before production and it did not move. That is rare enough to be worth saying out loud.
AU
Founder, DTC pet brand
Melbourne · 2nd order
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