We understood that if we were to achieve what we believed was possible in making the new Fabricell Australia a successful stand alone business entity, we had to regain your confidence by proving that we can, and will continue to be a reliable business partner, providing good quality products at market competitive prices, and most importantly providing good stock support, ensuring continuity of supply.
With a view for us to establishing a solid platform to build on going forward, we undertook extensive travel throughout China, Indonesia and Malaysia holding face to face meetings with all of our key manufacturing partners. New ongoing trading agreements were put in place with all our chosen partners, including very clear understanding, expectations and commitment by both parties.
In the months following we have progressively rebuilt our stock position on all core items, and I am pleased to say that we are very close to achieving our targeted objectives on all lines. The following is a very brief overview of our key product groups.
Microgard
Our stock position on Microgard is probably the best it has ever been since we released the range some three years ago. We have a consistent flow of stock coming into our warehouse with pre orders planned some three months in advance. So aside from the occasional short term shortage on a particular size here and there, our stock support position on the Microgard is excellent.
Disposable Gloves
Our stock position of Med-X latex, Vinyl & Nitrile gloves is also very good. This did take a little longer to bring into line as the former entity had nothing pre booked for future production, and with the complication of the swine flu issue throughout Asia and Europe, getting production slots proved to be a bit of a problem. Regardless over the past 3 months we have received good supplies of all styles. So again, aside from the occasional short term shortage on a particular size we don’t envisage any major issues. Again we have now put in place forecast ordering for 3 or 4 months in advance to ensure continuity of supply.
Disposable consumables
Whilst our position with these products is probably the best it has been for a year or more, it is still not where we have targeted it to be, mostly due to the impact of the swine flu epidemic overseas. Many of the manufacturing facilities that specialized in these products i.e. coveralls, overshoes, crimp caps, armsleeves etc, shifted their manufacturing focus to making disposable face masks to meet the global demand created by the epidemic. This also resulted in severe shortages of polypropylene for the construction of spun bonded and melt blown based products. We have had some challenges to work through, not to mention the increased raw material costs, in sorting this area of our product offer, mind you we are well aware that this situation hasn’t been unique to Fabricell, most of our competitors have been faced with the same supply problems for these products. To overcome these issues we have now established several alternative support partners who have committed to work with us to ensure we can achieve our targets. Accordingly I will keep you advised, or undoubtedly you will hear from our sales team as we consolidate our position, in short we have stock of most items but we can and will improve this position going forward.
Breathalon Rainwear
We are continuing to offer garments under the Breathalon Brand, and depending on the style of garment selected these will either be Australian Made, or come from a manufacturing partner in China. We have reasonable stocks of our “Storm” Jackets and pants, and expect to have good stocks in place for the forthcoming winter season by mid to late April. Ideally we would have preferred to have these stocks in place earlier, but it is was necessary for us to establish a new manufacturing partner off shore for this product range. I should also make the point that we are continuing to offer manufacturing of “Custom Made” garments and “Garment Optioning”, as well as in house embroidery services.
Riggers Workwear
We have good core stocks of the most popular work wear apparel items including standard coveralls, action backs, short and long sleeve cotton drill shirts, cotton drill trousers, cargo trousers and shorts, chambray shirts etc, and our stock includes plain color, two tone and reflective tape versions of these garments.
Supporting the groups activity in regard to work wear apparel we have recently appointed Sean Connelly who was formerly with the Bisley Group and prior to that was representing Moldex in Australia. Sean has extensive knowledge and experience in the safety industry and we expect he will be a valuable addition to our team.
Techniche Cooling Products – NEW PRODUCT OFFER
Following our visit to the A+A show in Dusseldorf we finalized our agreement with this US based company to act as their agent in the Pacific region. As a starting point we have just landed the first stock shipment of a selection of cooling products from their extensive range offer. These selected products include several styles of “Cooling vests” which are both evaporative and phase change styles, in standard colors as well as Hi Vis, a sports style and Indura FR, and a hydrating back pack unit with refillable bladder. It also includes a neck band and an insert with neck flap for those wearing hard hats. The full range from Techniche is extensive and includes heating products in a wide range of designs and formats. We will progressively introduce these products to our range over the coming months.
Other
We have several other new product opportunities we are working to finalize emanating from our trip to A+A in Dusseldorf. We will keep you informed as each of these opportunities come to fruition, these include extending our offer in respect to stock or customized FR garments and accessories, as well as other more specific PPE products, so watch this space as they say.
Western Australia
We have just appointed a new territory manager to support our activity in Western Australia. Stuart Martin commenced with us on the 12th of January. He is a local lad but not from the safety industry, so he is on a fairly steep learning curve at the moment, however we are confident that Stuart’s natural enthusiasm, drive and energy will serve him and our Western Australian business partners very well. It has been too long coming but finally we have much needed support in the west, and to support Stuart’s local activity we are also providing local stock support of key products, so to our WA customers, all I can only say is, please utilize Stuart to support your sales requirements, that is what he is there to do.
Queensland
Basically since the departure of Judy Khor nearly three years ago, we have only provided limited support to our Queensland customers. I am pleased to advise that we are very close to making an appointment for a full time territory manager based out of Brisbane, I expect this will be finalized by the end of March this year. Similarly as with WA customers, we hope you will identify this appointment as our total commitment in rebuilding our position with you in this market. We are also investigating our options for local stock support of key products for Queensland, however I don’t expect that this will be in place until late 2010 or early 2011, either way we will keep you informed.
IMPORTANT – TRADING TERMS
We need to reinforce with you that in our drive to get this business back on track we have had to manage our finances at both ends of the spectrum, our commitment to stock, support resources, systems etc, have required significant investment, thus we need to manage our debtors diligently, and for this we make no apology.
Our terms are STRICTLY 30 DAYS, however in an effort to work closer with our customers, we allow up to 45 days. It is our policy that ANY customer that exceeds our 30 to 45 day terms, will be Put on hold.This is an automatic action by our accounting software system. If payment is received within the 45 days there will be no cause for disruption to your account.
Communication is the key, if an extension of your payment is required, please advise our accounts department, and if approved by management, this will be noted on your account for the relevant payment.
If your account is repeatedly overdue, then it will need to discuss our ongoing trading arrangements.
We are currently reviewing all trading accounts that where the current spend does not reach the required spend level for trading account terms. As we work through this exercise we will take you the customer into full consideration with respect to pricing and ongoing trading options, either with us directly, or by redirection through to one of our major distribution partners.
SUMMARY
Well it has certainly been an interesting and challenging 6 or 7 months, nevertheless we are very positive about the position we have managed to work to at this point, and we are even more so excited and enthusiastic about where we can go from here.
No, it hasn’t been perfect, and we still have a lot of work to do in rebuilding the new Fabricell Australia to the former status this business enjoyed some three years ago. All I can do is assure you that everyone in our team is fully committed to achieving that objective, we are here to help you, and work with you to grow our respective businesses for mutual prosperity. Hopefully you will continue to allow us the opportunity to prove to you that we can, and will be one of your most valued business partners.
On behalf of all the team please accept my sincere thanks for your support. If you have any feedback, comment or suggestion you would like to offer in regard to the above, please do not hesitate to call us or drop us a note.
Best regards,
Ron Williams
Managing Director
Monday, February 15th 2010 -Fabricell has recently opened its new offices in Malaga, Perth and appointed Stuart Martin as the account manager for WA. The new office and warehouse is located in the heart of the Malaga business district off Oxleigh Drive, with ample parking great new facilities... (Read More)
    
Check out the Fabricell blog for all the latest news and updates:
 |
