Our client had a major scare in January 2024 when a knife was found protruding out of a punch bag. They are taking every precaution for this not to happen again and you cannot blame them for the audits. The imported bags I have seen in the past when double checking were a bag full of horrors as any rubbish was used as filler. Builders rubble, needles which I consider more dangerous than a knife were encountered in another brand being a cheap import. You can only imagine and we do not go down that route and why I have spent the time sourcing and selecting my materials
This week we were informed we will have to go through one more audit before we can produce items and supply to one of our major clients. The weird part is we have already completed and passed 2 audits for the same client and now apparently this company who will be doing the audit is the correct one.
We were told this was a done deal months ago already and have been sitting on their stock which is waiting in or warehouse. I agree it is a done deal as why would they send their stock ahead of time if they were uncertain. This is just a matter of crossing the t's and dotting the i's and wat happens when you are dealing with a major retail chain. The bigger the companies the more red tape they have in place and this is holding everyone back. One would have thought the SABS audit which is the South African Bureau of Standards would have been the major audit that sufficed, but apparently not.
The good news is having completed 2 audits previously we are ready for number 3 and are fully prepared. I suppose this is what you have to do jumping through hoops if you want the business. This company will be our second biggest client with the punching bags and have been comping at the bit to get the orders flowing.
Currently the overall numbers are slightly down as apparently this item is seasonal and we have filled a void that previously was non existent. The market has never had a stable supply of punching bags and we have been fulfilling the markets needs non stop since August.
Th online sales platforms have been very consistent with orders being dispatched daily and these numbers have slowly been rising month on month. When you are dealing with a niche field such as we are you cannot plan that far ahead as the numbers required are still an unknown factor. I prefer the steady numbers without the spikes as then there is no issues with raw material supplies and paying over time. This could be more profit, but there are added costs that need to be factored in and overall you earn less per item.
With this new client imminently coming on board the volumes should rise by about 40% and then stabilize by around an extra 20% which will finally give us an indication of what the volumes will be monthly. The current numbers at least cover the costs of staffing and expect the season will pick up after Easter. A number of the sporting items are seasonal even though we have good weather all year round. The cooler winter months apparently is when everyone trains in doors so we are not that far away again.
When we first started out I had a number in my head that I would be happy with and we surpassed that figure long ago and even with the drop off in numbers we are still above that figure.