Choosing a luggage manufacturer
It is important when choosing a luggage manufacturer, to get to know them and build a relationship, before committing to development and production. Like all projects there are going to be challenges and it is important that you have a good working relationship from the start.
Once you have had several conversations and video calls, you will get a good idea of there commitment and understanding of your needs. Then if possible, it is worth going out to meet the company and see the facilities for yourself.
Visiting China
After exploring Europe to see if there was anyone who could achieve what we were after, it became clear that if you are looking for luggage manufacturers, China is the main place to go. Although we have visited China before for clients’ design reviews, this was different. For us it was a major step in our ambitions to produce our own product.
Our visit started with some negotiation over taxi prices and drivers, the first person approaching us seemed expensive, so we made our way to the taxi rank and got a much better deal!
The traffic was busy, chaotic and no quarter was being given by any of the drivers. As we went to put on our seat belts there was a catch – or rather a lack of one – well the driver didn’t have his on so we should be OK.
Looking around there are many car manufacturers in China so many you haven’t heard of but here are alot you will recognise. So similar airport journeys in both Great Britain and China!
The taxi driver put his seat belt on, we shared a worried glance that the journey was about to get exciting. Although the horn is weapon number one, and it is a matter of pride to succeed in or prevent someone squeezing into a different lane, there seemed to be no road rage from any of the drivers. With his GPS directing him some 45 minutes later we arrived. We waited with some interest for the usual adding up of the road tolls and meter reading the cost was worth the time lining up at the rank.
Although it was an indepth meeting in Bejing, before our internal flight to the next manufacturer, we had an evening to visit the centre. Tiananmen Square was busy with tourists before we made our way to Wangfujing St., walking through the tourist ‘China Town’ with its food outlets displaying live scorpions on skewers and numerous gift stalls with waving porcelain cats.
The following day we flew to our final destination to meet the second company at their head office before being taken out to their manufacturing site.
So having built a remote relationship with these two companies I already had an idea of what the visits would be like, and as I expected both teams were fantastic, going out of their way to make me welcome. Going round with them was insightful as they explained their process, showing samples of previous items and how they would treat us as a partner. After visiting both companies I now had a clear idea of which I was going to get along with, building a partnership to develop and manufacture drive luggage’s first case.
So a worthwhile trip and we set off back to the airport as our taxi driver did a good impersonation of Lewis Hamilton. At drop off, the usual adding up and pointing took place. We handed over the fare, and headed off to check in. As we stood at check in a good 15 minutes after leaving the taxi, I was tapped on the shoulder by our driver. He was placing 10CNY in my hand (£1); he had added up wrong and had spent some time finding us. Refusing to keep it as a tip he put it on our bags, so a shake of the hands and he left. Another insight to this fascinating culture.
China is a very foreign country of extremes, and without visiting difficult to comprehend, but our experiences there are always educational and rewarding. Especially on this occasion when we were choosing a luggage manufacturer as we continue on our exciting journey!
