With over 20 years of experience working for start-up brands in need of contract manufacturing all the way up to well-established big players like Estee Lauder and Crown Laboratories, who have their own manufacturing capabilities, your manufacturing partner can be the most important part of bringing products to the market.
With all the small new indie brands out there and the trend of being cleaner and greener, the manufacturing industry needs to adjust accordingly to meet the needs of brands and consumers. Brands should look for manufacturing partners that will grow with them and are the right fit throughout the lifecycle of the brand.
These are the things that I looked at when starting up Skinfix back in 2012:
Location – Trying to keep manufacturing local to where the brand is stationed is important. You want to be able to be on-site as much as possible to get projects moving. If you are on the East Coast and the CM is on the West, it’s hard to oversee and keep things in check.
What is the capacity of the manufacturing facility? You want to know the lowest batch size (typically 5K) vs. the largest batch that can be made. If a product goes viral or you sell at a retailer like Costco, having access to large kettles is important.
Do they have in-house formulators? If you want to start a line from scratch, do they have chemists that can work with you? How do they handle formula ownership? Typically, it’s a per-product cost, or you can negotiate a volume buyout. If you buy a certain amount of the product annually for x number of years, the formula will be yours. The CMs put this in place to protect their investment of R&D time and resources. They don’t want to develop a formula for you, and then you turn around and go to another factory.
If you have your own formulas, how do they handle the tech transfer process?
What are the assembly and automation capabilities? The more that can be automated, the better the cost of goods will be. Equipment – is it modern? Do they look like they are investing in the kettles and filling lines? How many do they have? If you are a small brand, you don’t want to get bumped too many times from production schedules because bigger clients take preference.
Always inspect and tour the facility in person. Meet with the project management team that will handle making your product
How clean is the factory? If the floors are in disrepair and it looks like everything needs a coat of Paine, stay away. You can’t put a price on cleanliness in a factory setting.
Do they possess all of the expected industry certifications? GMP Compliant, ISO. If the FDA inspected them, would they pass?
What is their water system? Almost all formulas contain water, and it’s usually the number one ingredient. How they filter and source it is important.
What type of quality systems are in place? Incoming ingredients, Lot controls, traceability solutions, document controls, and finished goods testing, to name a few.
Do they have an in-house microbiology lab? If not, what’s the turnaround time to get results on batches if they send it to an independent lab?
Before you decide to work with a CM, always get a realistic quote that has all costs included. You don’t want any hidden surprises. Ask about price breaks. If you increase your buy, does the price get better? Will you, as the brand, source the packaging and have the CM do the formula, fill and assembly, or will you have the CM source it and do the project as turnkey?
Always inspect and tour the facility in person. Meet with the project management team that will handle making your product. Know the key players, and once a project gets kicked off, agree on a realistic timeline that can be achievable. I can tell you it’s usually not under eight months ever.
I always have the cell phone number of the person in charge. When problems arise, you always want to talk to someone who can make things happen. Keep in mind, I don’t abuse that, and when I do send a text, you can be sure they answer me right back! Have weekly meetings with the designated teams from both the brand and the CM. This will keep things on track and highlight accountability.
Invest the time and money into pilot batches. When scaling up a formula to production batch sizes, things can feel different, and the compounding and mixing of formulas don’t always go as planned. You don’t want to find this out when you are in the middle of an exclusive Sephora launch and have a deadline to meet.
Make sure to share sales forecasts as soon as possible. This lets the CM buy the necessary ingredients in time for when you place the POs. You are only as quick as your longest lead time. If you have an exotic ingredient that takes extra time to order, you need a lot of time for it from the start.
Finally, you should always have a backup plan. The one thing the pandemic has taught us is that the game has changed. A lot of smaller brands sadly fell to the wayside during this difficult time. Larger brands planned ahead to make sure they had what they needed to take them through the storm. If a facility shuts down because the workers on the line can’t come in, you want to be able to pivot to another option.
