Order Quantities per month/ annum

[Lfrog]

New to the manufacturing side of this business , so excuse the question if it seems a bit dumb.

What sort of order volumes, in terms of monetary value, do leather workers place with their leather suppliers per month/year for their leather stocks. I am trying to work out what  the average customer is worth to their supplier. If you could share how often you order that would be a great help too.

 

If you dont wish to divulge such information, could I ask a more general question, what annual spend with ONE supplier as an independent leather small goods manufacturer do you consider would place you in the top 25% of their customer base.

 

Thank you i advance for any replies. 

[mikesc]

what annual spend with ONE supplier as an independent leather small goods manufacturer do you consider would place you in the top 25% of their customer base.

Only the supplier would know who is where ( in percentage spend terms ) in their customer base..unless they give a buyer ( despite my being on good terms with my suppliers, if I asked any of them this they would rightly tell me it was "none of my business" ) access to the supplier's trading accounts..

You are better off asking , what type of goods are produced, what type of leather is bought, what quality, how much, what price monthly / annually ..

[Lfrog]

On 5/29/2019 at 6:22 PM, mikesc said:

Only the supplier would know who is where ( in percentage spend terms ) in their customer base..unless they give a buyer ( despite my being on good terms with my suppliers, if I asked any of them this they would rightly tell me it was "none of my business" ) access to the supplier's trading accounts..

You are better off asking , what type of goods are produced, what type of leather is bought, what quality, how much, what price monthly / annually ..

Thank you for the reply, I understand only the supplier could give a figure, which is why I asked for opinions eg I think 50,000 a year would put them in the top 25% or whatever they thought that figure may be. I  am not fishing for confidential information just  a general feel for where I need to be to negotiate. I also appreciate that Herman oak customers have different volume requirements to Tandy customers.

 

 

 

[mikesc]

50,000 ..fifty thousand what ? ..currency ? ( which ? ) skins / hides..if the latter sq feet totals or sq metres..all skins ? or by type species ?
The leather market in France is worth approximately 4 billion Euros per year..that is apparel, shoes, sacs, luggage..etc ..that does not include industrial uses ( joints in pumps etc etc ) ..if you mean 50.000 USD or the equivalent in Euros per year ?..that is not much at all to even the "medium level suppliers"..

Try this search string in Google..copy and paste ..don't bother with " marks..
leather market world wide spend by country

The market also breaks down further by type of leather sold / used..

I deal with mainly lambskin tanneries..a few suppliers of exotics..some cow, calf and buffalo ( not bison ) ..

When I was designing and importing finished leather goods from "Asia", I was moving well over your figure " white labled" ( my brands ) ..my suppliers were trading into the west in 10s of Millions of Dollars / Euros worth per year, to big name brands ( apparel, shoes, sacs and accessories ) and "couture brands" ..50K per annum ( presuming you are referring to "gross spend" is "hobby level"..

In the UK..almost all the apparel and footwear comes finished out of Asia or Europe, and a lot of what claims to come out of Europe is in fact white labled out of Asia..In my main area there are only a handlfull of actual genuine "made in UK" UK "makers"..the rest are importing made to order and either adding lables or stamps..or in many cases ( same applies to the USA , and to a large degree France, Italy Germany , Poland etc ) having items shipped fully finished in Asia pre labled made in UK / USA etc ..or the lables come separately shipped first..and the goods with no lables about "country of origin/ manufacture"shipped separately..but with size lables already in place ...."sewing in" of the "made in" happens in destination country..In many jurisdictions, the act of "sewing in" and or re-packaging, makes this practice legal..Usually around 5% "local" input makes it legal to say "made in".

There are various trade sites that you can find which will show you just how much leather is moved by country, worldwide..as wet blue,raw skins for tanning, veg tanned skins or other stages..some have their info publicly available, some require joining with industry credentials or business registration, some of the world's leather trading platforms in particular are interesting..Bu then you are talking thousands , tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of skins, everything from shark , croc, snake, to lamb, cow , buffalo etc.

Almost every country has it's associations that you can join if you are a business,( will cost you though ) lots of info for members which is not released to the public.

HTH

Btw..shipping internationally from the UK is expensive..not as much as shipping from France..but still..So..and especially in the light of the Looming Brexit.

IIWY..I'd begin in the UK ( Your home ground according to your profile info ) ..and consider "abroad" later, also bearing in mind that in almost all cases "abroad" get their leather ( all types ) cheaper than you do / can in the UK..There are a few exceptions, I deal with at least one of them in the UK, but they are long time established and their leather comes from North Africa..and they are "niche"..

Edited May 31, 2019 by mikesc