If you have a company which sells consumer hygiene products, cosmetics, or perhaps first aid ointments then perhaps it's time to renegotiate with your contract manufacturers and upgrade your product lines.
Why not add new products to your existing line of products to cover more categories and make more money from your solid brand loyalists.
May as well, that's what all the multi-national conglomerate consumer product companies do, fortune 100 companies like Proctor and Gamble and Johnson and Johnson for instance.
The consumer product specialized niches of consumer product lines which involve skin care products, skin treatments, and first aid creams such as ointments, anti-bacterial gels, and wound healers is a multi-billion dollar industry, one which is clearly dominated by the big boys in the industry.
But there is plenty of room for niche players specializing and marketing to a specific consumer segment or industry.
This is why contract manufacturing is alive and well in this sector, perhaps why you outsource your company's manufacturing operations.
Still, you must realize that if your current contract manufacturer which you outsource to cannot handle it, or does not have the laboratories to help you with new proprietary blends then, you might have to look elsewhere.
After all, there is a big difference between toothpaste, suntan lotion, skin treatments, or first aid ointments or wound healers.
If the skin treatments or skin care products do not contain the essential oils to really do the job, then your promise to the end user, your customer, your loyal customer that is, goes unfulfilled.
Thus, eventually so too will your future profits, as your customers migrate to other brands, or back to the big boys, such as the two Fortune 100 companies listed above.
Consider if you will the need to moisturize, sanitize, clean, protect, and remove bad bacteria - this is serious business.
So, when you go private label and work towards brand extension, you are going to need a solid partner, one you can trust to be there for you through this expansion phase.
Indeed, it goes without saying that private label suppliers are not all created equally, especially when it comes to skin care products, liquid filling, and hygiene products.
It gets even trickier with supplements and fortified products as you get into issues of regulation by the FDA and deal with potential liability issues down the road, or God forbid the infamous recall which could trash your brand name.
Now then, it pays to do your homework, and this isn't just about price anymore - yes price is a factor, but more importantly you need an outsourced company, contract manufacturer, and private brand label partner that is with you every step of the way.
Someone who is in it, to win it, so please consider all this.
Additional Reference: 1.
-"The Strategy Focused Organization" by Robert Kaplan and David P.
Norton, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, 2001, 400 pages, ISBN: 1-57851-250-6.