There has been a trend towards manufacturers bringing production back to the USA, especially for specialized products. There are several reasons behind this “reshoring.” Companies recognize that the cost advantages of manufacturing overseas are diminishing as compared to increasing risks like unstable supply chains, poor product quality, shipping delays, and potentially long-term global trade wars. This year has shown us that pandemics can cause havoc with supply chains, as well.
Working with packaging suppliers who are shifting to manufacturing more products here in the USA offers some tremendous benefits to you, the customer, so we wanted to drill down deeper into exactly how sourcing packaging made in the USA can provide you with a competitive advantage.
Shorter Lead Times
When it comes to getting your essential oil, CBD/THC, beauty, wellness, and food and beverage product into the hands of your customers, speed makes all the difference. Delays in getting your products out the door means lost sales. And, once a customer switches to a different brand due to product shortages, it’s really hard to get them back.
With overseas shipping there are multiple factors that affect lead times. Shipments can be commonly delayed for container quotas, bad weather, political instability, and foreign holidays.
You also have to deal with imports and border checks, which can leave your packaging products in limbo at a U.S. Customs office. This loss of control can cause delays which can cost you critical sales from important customers.
It’s not unusual for it to take 6-8 weeks to get products from Asia or Europe. Suppliers manufacturing here in the U.S. can potentially get product in your hands in days, as opposed to weeks. With shorter lead times, it makes is easier to forecast and react quickly to demand changes. You can carry less inventory, getting reorders just in time as you need it. This can be a positive benefit to managing your cash flow.
Less Cost, More Profitability
Sourcing packaging products from China or Europe may seem like a deal initially, with less expensive per piece costs, but end up being more expensive once you factor in additional costs like overseas shipping, inventory costs, and even exchange rate fluctuations.
According to an article by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, most companies make sourcing decisions based solely on price, which can result in a 20 to 30 percent miscalculation of actual offshoring costs. The total cost of ownership (TCO) accounts for all relevant factors—overhead, balance sheet, risks, corporate strategy, and other external and internal business considerations—to determine the true TCO.
Peace of Mind, When Safety is Critical
When safety is critical for your product, you’ll sleep better at night knowing you can deliver a safe customer experience. You can only do that though when you know where your packaging components come from – how the materials were sourced and in what environment they were assembled.
The last thing you want is poor quality resulting in a loss of purity or worst case, product contamination. You want to know that your child proof and tamper evident caps can really stand up to those claims because they are manufactured consistently.
When dealing with products made overseas, documentation and information can be hard to get. With essential oil, CBD/THC, beauty, wellness, and food and beverage products, consumers want to know everything about the safety of the product they are consuming, even the packaging. Manufacturing origin matters to your customers and your business must be able to answer their quality and safety questions with confidence.
Sourcing products made in the USA makes it easier to get the documentation you need to rest easy.
Quality, Consistent Functionality
All too often, we hear stories of how customers lost money by choosing low price bottles and caps from overseas vendors, only to find that these products didn’t do their jobs.
For example, we’ve heard of dropper inserts falling out of the dropper caps and tamper-evident bands that are already broken. This can cause consumers to distrust your product. They will not give you a second chance.
Or, maybe you waited weeks only to get caps that have cracks in them. This is a disaster for many products, which must be kept in a secured, sealable container to maintain their efficacy..
Again, according to ASME, there are a variety of negative factors seen in low-cost manufacturing countries such as slow delivery, supply chain interruption, ineffective communication, poor training, and loss of product control, often result in inferior quality, delays, recalls, and scrap and waste.
In order to ensure a great customer experience with your dispensing product, you need to know that your packaging will perform as desired, every time.
U.S. manufacturing relies heavily on technology and skilled workers to improve quality and efficiency. U.S. workers are among the most productive in the world, in part due to the country’s high labor standards, including labor laws that require a safe and high-quality work environment, cutting-edge workforce development, and investments in technology.
We are proud to be one of these domestic manufacturers, manufacturing our EuroDrop® caps and inserts here in the USA.
In fact, Carow Packaging has invested heavily to ensure that our one millionth cap is the same as our first one. This kind of consistency is especially important for those who machine fill and have low variation tolerance. We can guarantee the consistency and quality in our manufacturing process, so your customers don’t experience any surprises.
Communication and Support
A final benefit of sourcing products made in the USA is greater product support and easier communication. The packaging solutions you buy are meant to showcase your products in the best possible light. However, packaging is just one component of the customer experience.
So, you want the process of ordering and getting answers to your questions to be easy, fast, and stress-free. With suppliers offering products made in the USA, you don’t need to deal with language barriers and there are no delays getting answers due to time zone differences.
U.S. manufacturers can help you quickly react to new product trends because they are here, in the local market, seeing what is working and what’s in demand. In many cases, manufacturing lines can be adjusted to customize products or meet variable production volumes faster and easier.
If you want to see how we can deliver on these 5 key benefits of buying packaging solutions made in the USA or if you need more information on EuroDrop® caps, give our Solutions Specialists a call at 815-455-4600. We are happy to help with your packaging needs.
