Planning Makes Perfect

2015 is the Year of the Goat. It will be celebrated in China on 19 February – factories, offices and customs authorities will close for two to three weeks to allow staff to travel vast distances to celebrate with their families.

Most factories won’t re-open until 6 March, and even after they’re up and running some rarely have enough employees back in time to operate at full capacity. It’s usual for a factory to resume production with only a third of its workforce – some employees don’t return at all.

Air and sea freight get very congested. Freight must be at the port at least ten days before Chinese New Year to ensure shipment before the break starts. It also needs to be booked at least two weeks in advance as space is filled quickly. If you ship a large amount around that time, then congestion will likely bump at least one of your shipments to a later date, often a week after the holiday.

Most ports open again for normal shipping about a week after Chinese New Year. During the closures the majority of factories won’t provide quotations, send samples or dispatch goods. General lead times can extend up to four weeks.

Four Tips To Help You Prepare

1. Work with an experienced supplier that can provide a critical path showing the stages of an order to completion.

2. Plan in advance – the average lead time for an order when sea freighted is 12-14 weeks (not including factory shutdowns).

3. To accommodate samples, visuals and decision making processes you’ll need at least another four weeks prior to the order being placed.

4. Ask your supplier if it has any time built in, contingency plans or whether anything is likely to go wrong such as lost pre-production approval samples or delays at the port.

Arcadia has in-depth knowledge of sourcing custom-made promotional products for all brands using Asia supply chain, as well as understanding of target markets. We have long-term relationships with our extensive global network of approved suppliers, which cover most promotional product categories and manufacturing processes.

For expert advice please contact our sales team at sales@arcadiaonline.co.uk or call us on +44(0) 845 130 2620.

Make Memorable Merchandise

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Jason Markwick

Having worked in Promotional Merchandise for the last 25 years I have been exposed to all aspects of the industry. Starting out as an account manager working with some of the worlds leading brands, I have learnt to understand the needs of a client, manufacturing processes, and what it takes to deliver a successful promotional campaign that is on brand, on time and within a given budget.