Very Strange Company Indeed . . .

T

trajan

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I'm steered towards a certain manufacturer in Central Europe (EU member) by an official at that country's Dublin embassy.
I find the company's website, trawl through their products and find a range of them well-designed and keenly priced. I try phoning but it's hard to get through to any of the management - all of whom have the same surname, so it appears to be a family owned factory - and no one there speaks English, I'm told.
The website has an e-shop. So I proceed to register as a customer and order some products giving my Irish address as the delivery address. After an initial email confirmation of my order, I soon get another email saying that my order is cancelled as I do not live in the country of manufacture or its immediate neighbouring country -- these being the only 2 countries that they ship goods to from their e-shop.
I engage a native-speaking interpreter to phone the company management. Repeated calls to various numbers listed in the website contacts page bear no fruit whatever. The interpreter calls the local Mayor's Office in the same small town to check if the main phone number is correct. It is. The Mayor's Office staff have no idea of what may be wrong.

All while this process develops, I'm thinking this reminds me of another company (in USA, this one) which responded to calls and emails but always deferred decision "till Mr X gets back".
This went on for weeks till I began to wonder about Chapter 11. I came to the conclusion that the USA company may have applied for Chapter 11 protection and as such had to
1) Cease actual trading lest they be accused of trading recklessly;
but also
2) Maintain a public facade of "business as usual" so that existing goodwill and trust not be lost during the process of negotiating with their creditors.
This was the only plausible explanation for this company's ridiculous and frustrating behaviour to a new and very willing customer.

Lately I obtained an address in the Central European country and used this for an e-shop order of trial samples. No confirmation as yet but it's just a half-hour since I ordered.

Can anyone with similar experiences (not necessarily in Dracula country) offer me any enlightenment - and possibly emotional comfort - with this situation here ?
 
I could be quite cyncial and say they now have your credit card details, assuming you paid that way. Scam and Fraud??
 
Hi Trajan

I presume you have informed the credit card company on the transaction? Probably the safest thing to do is to cancel the transaction and the card itself. if you haven't I would seriously consider it.

Has there been any unusual transactions on the card since you tried to buy the goods?

Otherwise, I would recommend, Run, Run Away, Run Away Now!

Best,

Opus 2018.
 
No card trouble. Absolutely none.
Anyway most web shops do not make card deductions till the goods are shipped and that was the case here.
My order has already been confirmed at the delivery address, according to my contact there.
So far it seems like managerial incompetence, especially with regard to marketing and sales.
All the major management of the company are professionally qualified, e.g. MBAs, engineers, accountants. Yet it is unbelievable that they do not have a designated sales manager for UK/Ireland.
 
trajan said:
All the major management of the company are professionally qualified, e.g. MBAs, engineers, accountants. Yet it is unbelievable that they do not have a designated sales manager for UK/Ireland.
Click to expand...

If they have no particular interest in selling to the UK/Ireland why would they??? Of the four manufacturing firms here in my village at the edge of the Emmental, only one actively seeks international sales. The other three don't. They all have eShops, even in English (for the local who don't speak German), but the three just ignore orders coming from abroad unless they happen to be from German on Austria.
 
I have a supplier in Romania (Transylvania). They did answer the phone and emails but before I placed any significant orders I jumped on a plane and went to see them.
 
@Setanta: Yes.
The German market is the one that they all covet in Central Europe.
But this product was imported extensively into UK/Ireland between 1970s - 1990s and it was very well regarded. My information is that an Irish manufacturer of related products had distribution rights for a manufacturer from the same Central Europe country. The Irish manufacturer shut down and it seems no one bought the distribution agency for the CE manufacturer. Since then the product is absent from Ireland and UK, despite its popularity.
It's rather like the collapse in sales of Timotei shampoo after Tesco and other majors stopped stocking it: a major brand since the late 70s was essentially buried.

@Jim2007: Why would they ?
Because they could make more money. UK/IRL is a market of 66 million consumers with a good standard of living. This means more prosperity for their own company, its employees and the region it operates in.
 
@Purple: I'd love a jaunt to CE myself but I can't afford it.

My first task is to get samples, re-establish the product in the Irish mind and assess customer satisfaction and the market capacity. This means a succession of small orders increasing in size as word gets around.
In any case I haven't the dough to buy a pallet-load right now, let alone a truckload.

But, once the market is proven, yes, I would go over there for a factory visit with loads of questions on design, manufacture, discounts and so on.
 
trajan said:
@Setanta: Yes.

@Jim2007: Why would they ?
Because they could make more money. UK/IRL is a market of 66 million consumers with a good standard of living. This means more prosperity for their own company, its employees and the region it operates in.
Click to expand...

And presumable if they had wanted to, they would have gone over the market, but they did not... this may come as surprise to you, but not everyone wants to make more money. If they make a comfortable living as they are are happy with it, there is not reason why they should have to take on the additional hassle just to please you.
 
Jim2007 said:
And presumable if they had wanted to, they would have gone over the market, but they did not... this may come as surprise to you, but not everyone wants to make more money. If they make a comfortable living as they are are happy with it, there is not reason why they should have to take on the additional hassle just to please you.
Click to expand...

Extra hassle here will obviously be relieved by employing more staff to deal with this additional work.
It must be remembered that the existing product range would easily satisfy the needs of the new market, so no new products need be developed, tested, certified, etc.
For extra production volume, the additional manufacturing lines added will fund themselves.

Sure, for most people money is no incentive in itself beyond a certain point.
But increased revenue to a company really does give the company's senior management the scope to do humanly beneficial things that would not be possible without that level of cash.
Things like improving working conditions for staff; enhancing internal/external training for employees; having an in-company styling-design capability; contributing to wider community initiatives. All these are things that most manufacturers can only dream about doing. A manager with this scope for self-actualization should have little trouble getting out of bed in the morning -- without any thought of pleasing you or me.
 
Logistically it may be more trouble than it's worth for this company to ship to Ireland. Or that's the way they feel about it. It's outside of their comfort zone. And maybe they have had bad experiences shipping so far before.
Infrastructure is not as well developed in Romania as most of Europe.
 
trajan said:
Extra hassle here will obviously be relieved by employing more staff to deal with this additional work.
It must be remembered that the existing product range would easily satisfy the needs of the new market, so no new products need be developed, tested, certified, etc.
For extra production volume, the additional manufacturing lines added will fund themselves.

Sure, for most people money is no incentive in itself beyond a certain point.
But increased revenue to a company really does give the company's senior management the scope to do humanly beneficial things that would not be possible without that level of cash.
Things like improving working conditions for staff; enhancing internal/external training for employees; having an in-company styling-design capability; contributing to wider community initiatives. All these are things that most manufacturers can only dream about doing. A manager with this scope for self-actualization should have little trouble getting out of bed in the morning -- without any thought of pleasing you or me.
Click to expand...

Apparently it is a family run company, they don't want to do it. Thats where it ends.
 
It's a very strange thread....

You have gave the answers to your own question as to why they may not have tackled the English/Irish market

–It's possibly/probably a family run business
–No manager speaks English
–It already has identified a market that it can service at its current size and be profitable.

A company does not need to keep growing to be successful or profitable. So long as they are covering all their costs and have a good reliable order book from a known market it will be successful.

Many solid business have failed when they expanded. They just could not cover the extra cost and existing resources got stretched impacting on the core market. Ultimately leading them to become unprofitable.

Export growth would be even more risky without the right support and that may cost. Not every country is as export focussed as Ireland, or as supportive of companies chasing export markets.

Finally, maybe all the managers are already self-actualised and doing lots of beneficial projects for staff and work for the local community without needing extra headaches and life distractions?

Caveat. I have no idea if they only do direct sales
 
Just checked the company out in Kompass Int'l.
Just 40-50 employees and turnover €1-2 m up from €0.5 m a few years back.
Looks like a lean manufacturing plant with limited markets.
Also do distribution of related products from branded manufacturers.

I see why they'd have little resources for a big push abroad.
Maybe the local sales are met by the e-shop and wholesale orders are few enough to be managed by one person.
Not so strange looking at it like that.

Thanks to all for views.
 
A turnover of €40k per employee per year. That's not great, even in Romania.
 
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