FAQ

Vapiano – the fastest growing German restaurant chain

Sony Music, Warner Music, Universal Music, EMI – the world’s biggest music companies

Sueddeutsche Zeitung – Germanys biggest newspaper group

ARD / WDR Mediagroup – the largest German public TV Channel

Pro7Sat1 Media Group – the largest German private TV Channel

FC Bayern Muenchen – the biggest German football club

Paulaner Breweries – one of the best known breweries in Germany

Heraeus Group / Heraeus Medical – one of the fastest growing medical-tech companies in Germany

Neuroth AG – leading European hearing aid manufacturer

Swarovski – world leading luxury product manufacturer

For more references please visit the reference section of our website.

This question cannot be answered in a general way since it depends on the product.
As a ballpark figure, after a couple of thousand units – however, we have products where producing and airshipping 500 units only – e.g. keychains / lanyards – can already be faster and cheaper than ordering from an importer in the US.

For products which we manufacture with long time suppliers or which are of higher quality, units of roughly 500 pcs. are easy to be done. Also, long term suppliers are often more willing to do smaller quanitities for their long term clients whereas Chinese factories are often reluctant to produce small quantities for new clients which makes the so called MOQ (minimum order quantity) often an entry barrier for companies seeking to start sourcing in China directly.

In addition to that, Chinese factories are mostly short sighted – they do not see the future potential in a small order client and only assign their less experience project managers to such new inquiries which often results in quality issues or delivery problems with these orders.

Since we have excellent airfreight rates with courier companies such as UPS, it is often possible to also ship small quantities of products to our clients where the shipment price is below sea-freight rates within one week.

Finally, ordering with Kenago makes sense due to the fact alone that our clients do not have to care about anything once they place the order since we handle the entire process and communication and deliver door to door. Our clients are not bothered every day with emails through which they learn about new problems but they can focus on their core business and just receive the product in time in the right quality.
If there are problems or risks, we already address them beforehand so that we can jointly work on a solution whereas Chinese suppliers often wait until the last minute (the “shit hits the fan moment”) before addressing a problem. Then mostly it is not possible anymore to work out solutions.

In addition to that, we know the market very well and we can get products to attractive prices – at the same time being able to assess if a suspiciously cheap price comes with a quality loss or not – if a price is too good to be true, mostly there is a reason for it.

In the end though, our clients do not work with us just because we are cheap but because of the quality of our services and products as well as our reliability.

The usual Production Time is between 2-6 weeks depending on the product + Transport
Airfreight is about 1 Week (Europe or US)
Seafreight is about 3-4 Weeks (Europe or US)

An argument which we hear very often when we start working with a new client is: “but you are based in China”.

This is only partly true, since we are headquartered in Hongkong which is also our jurisdiction – in China we have a big office in Guangzhou which is where the operational work is done.

Hongkong does belong to China but in view of the Chinese “one-country two-systems” policy the former British crown colony has a special status and kept is former legal system which is based on British law. That means, the laws are basically the same laws as in England – same thing for legal security – which means you can enforce your rights.

It is for a reason that Hongkong has been continuously ranking among the top ten countries for global economic ease and competitiveness – even before European countries such as Norway and France.

Most middlemen or agents are based in your home country to where they import from China. From there they do not have immediate access to suppliers in case that there are problems with a project (quality issues, shipment issues, payment issues, production lead time issues, etc.). They can only communicate with their manufacturers in China via phone or Email.

Most likely their local staff communicates with the Chinese supplier in English, a language the Chinese supplier has only limited command of. Kenago has an experienced and competent team on site which is totally bilingual. If there is a problem, we have on of our staff on site at any factory within two hours. Therefore, none of our clients ever had problems with quality or late delivery with any of the projects we handled for them.

The argument that the quality from China is not good which can sometimes be heard is only valid to a certain point. Big corporations such as Apple manufacture their entire range of high-tech products in China. The quality of Chinese products is increasing at rapid pace. Important when deciding on whether to source in China or not is rather a question of finding the right (production/manufacturing) partner which requires a thorough assessment process to be able to evaluate a supplier’s product quality as well as its handling process quality and efficiency. For this, market knowledge, expertise and experience is necessary, all of which Kenago provides you with.

Another prerequisite for excellent quality is the ability to communicate, explain and train a manufacturer to understand, learn and incorporate your quality and brand image into the product he is manufacturing for you. Again, to achieve this, you need to not only find the right supplier but also be on site at the factory to jointly define and train the production team on the requirements and goals to be met.

Please know that this section only refers to products for which we do not have our own production facility in China but for which we act as a trading or production company.

At first glance this might seem a very attractive option and probably it even works out.

However, if you once dealt with a factory directly you know about the pitfalls in terms of cultural, technical as well as linguistic misunderstandings which often are a serious threat to your project. A seemingly easy project can result in becoming a never ending nightmare using your resources in terms of manpower, time and cash flow.

We have several clients who turned to us after working with Chinese factories directly but stopped after having had to trash an entire production due to poor quality or because of a delayed production. Now they happily work with us.

Apart from that, our expertise is not limited to finding the cheapest manufacturer – cheap can get very expensive at times.

What we do is to match your price and quality requirements with a supplier that meets your expectations in both regards. On top of that, we ensure that your supplier can keep what he promises in terms of reliability, quality stability and timely production. Besides, we support you in all aspects related to your project which includes services like design, development, certification and testing as well as import regulations – most Chinese factories do not have the know-how and experience to provide these services in a satisfactory manner and you run the risk that your product gets stuck in customs or that you have to withdraw a product from the market due to harmful substances being found.

Many factories in China say “Yes” to any kind of inquiry – regardless if they have the expertise, experience or equipment to match your expectations. Once they receive your down payment they start looking for a way to figure out how they can get your job done. We suggest to not work like this if you are seriously running your business – it will result in costing you both – time and money.

The only thing a QC company does is report back to you what is wrong once it happened. This is nice, but it does not help you in getting your problem fixed.

We on the other hand have a more holistic approach to Quality Control which you can see in your Quality Control Service section.
Once a quality flaw is discovered the next step is to find out how it could happen, how it can be fixed in a most timely and cost-efficient manner and how it can be avoided in the future.
Due to the in-depth know of our team when it comes to production processes and their many years of sourcing experience we provide our clients with concrete guidelines on how to solve the issue – thus adding value for clients working with us.

Often, our clients rely on our services from then on as a facilitating interface between the Chinese manufacturer on one side and our client on the other instead of liaising with the manufacturer directly.