A Romanian publisher and bookstore company wanted to import a specific lifestyle product that was very popular on TikTok and in the United States but had no Romanian vendors. They reached out to Telos for us to help find a supplier in China and provided photos and references for the product.
We were able to find the OEM for the product, as well as the original Hong-Kong-based animation studio that was the license and copyright holder. By negotiating with the animation studio, we were able to acquire the proper licensing rights for the product OEM. The animation studio released to us the original Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator files, to allow the client to perform localization and translation for the Romanian market. This way, the product box and instruction manual were fully localized in Romanian.
Telos China went to negotiate pricing with the OEM for the product. Although we were able to secure a good deal on the product itself, the OEM insisted on a surcharge for the custom printing of the product box and instruction manual. The OEM wanted to charge a significantly higher rate for the printing and refused to go lower on the price.
Our China VP has several decades worth of manufacturing experience and knew that the price was excessive for the product box. She knew that the OEM was attempting to up-charge our client, since due to licensing reasons they could not modify the price for the product itself. So instead of acquiescing, Telos China decided to in-house the printing of the product manual ourselves!
Using a pre-existing connection, our China VP placed an order for custom product boxes and manuals at a commercial print factory in the same district as our QA and trans-shipment warehouse. Even better, we were able to upgrade to a thicker grade of carton for the box, since we knew that the product was destined for overseas shipping. Ultimately, the cost of printing was 1/10th the cost that the OEM quoted for us.
This case study shows how a product requires more than just an OEM: but it requires localization, custom packaging, and printing. Telos China has extensive connections since our VPs have been entrepreneurs and factory owners themselves, allowing us to tap into these personal networks for our clients.