We can’t disclose most of the customers and brands we work with but we can assure you that you will be impressed if you come and visit us. To give an example of what we can do, read on and learn about our customer AVA and how we build their complete line of award winning pressure washers.
PRIVATE LABEL LINE DEVELOPMENT
Developing a new line of high pressure washers with a Chinese OEM manufacture can be a daunting experience. For Sand Future Shanghai it’s just another day at the company. Experience AVA high pressure washers up close and learn how we bridge Western and Asian project management skills and deliver quality pressures washers on time.
From sketch to mass production in 9 months – stupendous!
It really only took 9 months to develop and start mass production of this state of the art pressure washer but the project started 4 years earlier when CEO Morten Torlei of Swantech Norway had a dream – to design and launch his own line of high pressure washers and bring back profit margins to the retailers and distributors.
Swantech had been the importer and distributor for a major pressure washer brand for some 20 years and they were faced with declining profit margins. Further, they felt the market lacked real innovation and it was becoming exceedingly difficult to differentiate one machine design from another. After one year of doing thousands of customer and retailer interviews, Morten and his design team had a detailed 3D rendering of their dream product. Now it was time to find a manufacture, something that proved a lot harder than ever expected.
The hose reel “follows” the user and can pivot 90deg
It is no surprised to the experienced product manager that the project management culture is quite different between a Chinese and a Western company. Understanding of timing, style of communication, yes vs ok, people-oriented vs task-oriented, the importance of building relationships and misalignment between expected deliverables and actual deliverables are some of the key reasons why product development can take exceptionally long time and end up with a lot of frustrations for all parties.
To be truly successful you have to speak the same language. Not Chinese nor English but rather you need to understand and speak the same cultural language. It’s not unique for a company in China to have Chinese and Western managers working side by side but at Sand Future we are not shy of saying that we are probably the only company in our industry who has bridge the cultural differences into our own unique and highly functional company culture.
For Swantech, that meant everything. They had spent years trying to work with other manufactures and they felt for giving up when they met Sand Future. That was June 2017 and the AVA high pressure washer series was presented first time at the Eisenwaren Exhibition in Germany early March 2018.
An important element was to develop quality features and accessories that would add real value to the customers and also make them really want to buy the machines. After all, our objective wasn’t just to create the next generation high pressure washers but very much to come out with a product that increases sales and makes a better business for the retailers. The result is a range of helpful and unique features as well as top of the line accessories.
The style of the AVA machine is an attempt to create a functional sculpture inspired by the automotive industry. It blends futuristic design elements with a car chassis. Curves and edges – beauty and practicality.
So how did we do? Well you shall be the judge but one thing is certain: at Sand Future we have embraced the best of two worlds and we have a solid track record creating new products for some of the world’s largest power tool companies. And not only can we take on complex projects – small or large – but also, we can deliver with speed and at attractive prices.