not happy with my quality using heat press.help needed.asda so much better quality

[jennywren]

Some Supermarkets have a sale of return policy, so they nail you to the floor for the price and if they don't sale them, you get them back. I had a friend who got a deal through Argos and they did that, also to supply them he had to drop all the people that he normally supplied, his key rings never took of and Argos returned them (sale of return ) He had to pay back the money plus he lost his customers. Stay away for the dark

[Andrew]

Personally I think you will be up against it as it takes a while to get it all nailed down so you are competitive at the highest level. You will be best off at this stage linking up with someone in the know but trust becomes an issue. It's an awkward one as big opportunities are hard to pass up.

The cheapest you could get a decent mug in the UK is about 59p landed cost for 5k. 72k probably around 55p. The cheapest outsourcing on same design would be around £1.15 on large regular orders. Individual prints I would guess at £1.39 if same as above.

[Andrew]

andrew.china seems so much cheaper.whats the disadvantages apart from risk of quality etc

I doubt China direct will be much cheaper once you factor in duty and delivery plus agents fees etc. You can also end up with a container of worthless junk if you haven't done enough homework. Things can go wrong anywhere in the World but in the UK you have a lot more comeback.

[Andrew]

jenny.how could hey return personalised products.i dont get it ,what was he supplying.was it a generic set of words for example

You are right, sor wouldn't really apply on personalised one off's. Jenny might just be indicating how many pitfalls there are when dealing with the bigboys.

[jennywren]

jenny.how could hey return personalised products.i dont get it ,what was he supplying.was it a generic set of words for example

It was generic, nothing to do with mugs ect but wooden key rings, girls name, ect, it was just a example of how the big orders can go pear shape if you are not familiar with the way things done. Even when you've done your homework. Because Argos brought his stuff he caught up with the excitement of it all, he really didn't think that much would get returned. His line failed so it all went back to him. The grass is not always greener on the other side, it must be good for those that get it right.

[socialgiraffe]

Andrew is pretty much spot on with prices and when looking at importing the saving on mugs is so small that it is not worth having that sort of money tied up on a ship for 6-12 weeks. BMS are one of the cheapest around right now for the cheap mugs. There are other suppliers but they do have stock issues and seem to run out all the time!

Beware though as Jennywren says, the big boys are ruthless. About 4-5 years ago we approached Tescos for school embroidery work. They thought it was an excellent idea and we started to talk terms, prices logistics etc etc. Suddenly it all went quiet and no one was responding to our questions etc. Low and behold six months later they announced the aquisition of an embroidery company and simply took everything inhouse. Did not even bother to respond to us
with a thanks but no thanks, even though the whole thing was our idea.

Dan, 1 contract that is marketed out will never get you a ferrari (personaly I think you should go for a Aston!) but another way to think of it is that, while someone else is earning me money, it gives me the oppurtunity to go out and get another contract and subsequently keep building. Even if you did everything inhouse I doubt it would earn the money you are thinking as 72,000 mugs will still not make that much money.

S

[Charlie_]

Beware though as Jennywren says, the big boys are ruthless. About 4-5 years ago we approached Tescos for school embroidery work. They thought it was an excellent idea and we started to talk terms, prices logistics etc etc. Suddenly it all went quiet and no one was responding to our questions etc. Low and behold six months later they announced the aquisition of an embroidery company and simply took everything inhouse. Did not even bother to respond to us
with a thanks but no thanks, even though the whole thing was our idea.

S[/QUOTE]

Had the same thing with tesco's but it wasn't nothing to do with this, it was quite different but end result was the same. Not even a thank you for opening our eyes to this ....