Success Stories

We worked with a European entrepreneur who was interested in importing high-end stationary bicycles (similar to Spinning Aero) for home gym enthusiasts. The customer had a well-established fitness business and was interested in expanding into the home gym market. They already did some research and tried contacting suppliers from AliExpress on their own but struggled to negotiate pricing or find a manufacturer that was willing to work with a minimum order quality (MOQ) of less than 100 units.

They were referred to Telos China, and we begin assisting them with the process. After a free consultation, they committed to a supplier research process. Our China VP was able to find an OEM that made commercial gym equipment, who also had a high-end home stationary bike model that fit our client’s requirements. Even better, the specific stationary bike was discontinued. The OEM usually only makes commercial gym equipment and created a home stationary bike as a new venture for the Chinese market. Unfortunately, because very few people in China owned home gyms, the product was not successful in China, so the Chinese OEM discontinued the product with few sales: despite having made significant investments in custom tooling and injection-molds. Hence the Chinese OEM incurred a significant capital loss and had plenty of unsold stock on hand.

Our China VP was able to take advantage of this unusual situation and negotiate a very advantageous commercial relationship. The OEM was willing to sell our clients their existing stock at a very advantageous price. Afterwards, the OEM was willing to re-activate the manufacturing line and produce additional exercise bikes at no additional cost, because the custom tooling already existed and was unused. We were also able to negotiate full exclusivity for our []{#anchor-1}customer for the entire EU region, as well as custom branding (white label) service, also at no additional cost.

This case study illustrates the unique advantage that Telos China can provide our clients. By utilizing our deep network of relationships, we can find suppliers in usual places (a home exercise bike made by a commercial gym equipment OEM). Because we negotiate directly with factory owners in-person, we can find very good deals that help everyone: our client is able to obtain products at a significant discount with a low MOQ, the factory was able to recoup their capital investments, and both parties obtain a new product line.

A European entrepreneur reached out to us because they were interested in importing commercial pastry ovens for a bakery franchise that they operated. They needed large capacity commercial ovens for their franchise, and wanted our assistance only for shipping and customs clearance, as they had already found a supplier on AliExpress that had a product which met their needs.

They provided us with the information for the AliExpress supplier and asked us to help them negotiate pricing and arrange for shipping. With this information in hand, our China VP reached out to their contact.

However, after calling the contact, we realized that something was quite right with the AliExpress supplier. Our China VP decided to perform his own research and reached out to a Chinese associate who worked in the restaurant supply business in Guangzhou. We found out that the AliExpress “supplier” was not actually the OEM for the commercial ovens after all. Instead, they were a simple retailer that sold goods on AliExpress, with a significant markup! The actual OEM for these ovens did not have any English-language web presence.

With this discovery, we ended up reaching out to the actual OEM for these ovens. Our China VP took a trip to their factory and negotiated an order for six commercial ovens to be sent to our client. There was a 30% decrease in cost, because we were able to work directly with the manufacturer, without the markup from any middlemen.

This case study demonstrates how Telos China can perform a much better supplier search with our on-the-ground presence in China. And by negotiating directly with factory owners, we can obtain a much better price for our clients, improving margins for all.

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.