A new format shipped in weeks after both manufacturers fell through
Beauty cream brand (Canada), about 140,000 units a year · Produced in California
Two manufacturers failed this brand in the same stretch, one on capacity and a backordered ingredient, the other on licensing, while new orders for a new formula in a new format sat waiting. Everyone they asked quoted 10 to 16 weeks. Our US partner ran it in two to four, released the batch in parts so the orders could ship, and the product passed every test on the first run.
- Lead time where others quoted 10 to 16
- 2 to 4 weeks
- Cut from the launch timeline
- 6 months
- Dollars saved clearing the out-of-stock
- Tens of thousands
The brief
The brand sells a beauty cream through both retail and direct channels, in Canada and the USA. Two things broke at once. Their Canadian manufacturer could not fulfil the existing product, caught between its own production constraints and an ingredient that had gone on backorder. Their US manufacturer was no longer appropriately licensed to make the product at all. In the middle of that they had new orders in hand for a new formula in a different format, against deadlines and targets they had already committed to. Every other manufacturer they approached quoted 10 to 16 weeks.
Open a line at our US partner
We took the new formula to our manufacturing partner in the USA and had the run scheduled inside two to four weeks, against the 10 to 16 weeks quoted everywhere else. That partner holds the licensing the product needs, which is what their previous US manufacturer had lost.
Release the batch in parts
Their orders could not wait for a full batch to clear. We agreed to partial releases, shipping product as it came off the line so the brand could meet demand it had already promised. That is an exception rather than how a run normally works, and it was the right call here.
Match the backordered ingredient instead of replacing it
The ingredient that had stalled their Canadian production was sourced elsewhere and matched to their formula rather than substituted into it. The formula did not change, so nothing downstream of it had to change either.
Keep their run in its slot
A smaller client's production does not get moved here to make room for a larger one, so the schedule they were given is the one they got.
The outcome
The product was replicated and passed every test on its first run. The new format reached market roughly six months sooner than the quoted lead times would have allowed, and clearing the out-of-stock saved the brand tens of thousands of dollars. The formula never changed through any of it, which mattered because customers on both sides of the border were already buying it.
We work under NDA, so this client is described rather than named. That is deliberate: the discretion we extend to them is the same discretion we extend to you.
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