European Accounts Manager Jason Castleberry explains the criteria Triplar look at when picking a partner factory.

When it comes to finding reliable and high-quality retail furniture suppliers, Triplar considers much more than cost savings and speed alone before selecting a UK or EU-based partner factory.

At Triplar, our experience covers both UK-based and European supply chains. With the latter being by far the most important part of our business, as far as relationship management is concerned, for almost three decades. No matter the continent, our procurement choices are always heavily influenced by the client’s priorities, culture and    past experience.

Whether Triplar is working with a UK or European-based factory, open communication, shared responsibility and disciplined processes are key to maintaining the highest standards. As our partner factories are not ‘just around the corner’ we require very diligent production planning, quality assurance and communication processes. These business critical practices allow us to remain flexible in satisfying the ever-changing requirements that all brands have in modern retail environments.

There may be times where we are able to get a better, more expensive product from the UK that our clients are happy with. However this mainly pertains to smaller, ad hoc projects for which having the supply chain close to home is worth the increased cost.

When larger volume projects are concerned experience has shown that Triplar’s relationships with partner factories in continental Europe are the right choice in meeting the requirement for high-output, efficiently-manufactured and cost-effective retail environments. Whether they be for factory outlets or high street boutiques.

This combination of EU and UK partnerships is roughly split 80:20 in favour of European suppliers, with the relationships we build being the most important factor when choosing a partner factory.

As Triplar’s business model provides a wide range of potential executions of any retail project we’d love to hear about your next retail adventure and offer our expertise in solving any challenges you encounter along the way.