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Sample sourcing for DSM Firmanech and Clariant
We’re a brand that’s been around for a while doing a very specific cream for treating dermatitis, but have recently expanded to do more beauty/skincare products and larger sales volume. We’ve got a pretty small staff at the moment, and have been busting our butts on coming up with the best possible formulas for our launch and the following two quarters’ launches. We’ve had no problem getting samples from many of the bigger players, which has been super helpful. With that said, two of the larger suppliers have flat out turned down any requests for samples, and some of them are for products that only they offer. It’s frustrating, because they’re not even offering a reason for turning them down—just saying “we can’t help right now.” I’d happily buy small quantities for formulating with if it were an option, but obviously they have large MOQs, so that’s not possible. Have any of you had either Clariant or DSM-firmanech turn you down as a customer? How about the innovation company? (They’re in Europe, so I understand being unwilling to ship to the US, but surely they have a partnership with someone in the US, given how large their product base is, and that nobody else makes the “fiflow” products). I understand that they’re trying to avoid being scammed by randos, but we’re a legitimate business with all the appropriate licensing and registration, and have a great client base, so we’re not scamming anyone (though we’ve definitely ordered a lot of samples from other places over here last 4 months, since we were pretty much starting from scratch on formulation). Now we’re ready to start putting in our initial orders, but it makes it hard when a couple of key ingredients are flat out inaccessible, with no explanation. Thanks for any advice you can offer on how to begin relationships with companies that seem reluctant to open up to indie brands.
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2 Replies
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We have encountered this problem sometimes. And you simply have no option but to pivot and move ahead.
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I’ll suggest two strategies, albeit weak ones. Contact the Clariant or DSM distributor in your part of the USA (Univar I suspect) and ask about obtaining a pail quantity and expect to pay a premium for it. If it is a particularly esoteric item (like Fiflows) they will often have a partial drum in the warehouse or lab being used for samples and pilot quantities. This normally will not work for commodity items. The other is to ask that same distributor if they - or you - can contact another customer purchasing the same item regularly and if they - or you - can ask them to sell you some. That worked for me in the past where I had a tight business relationship with the distributor and a cordial one with the other party. That party was happy to part with unused inventory at a nice profit. I streamlined the process by taking care of shipping costs and pick-up, even sending them the BOL to use. The less work for them the easier to help you.
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