Loop Customer Spotlight
The following article is the transcript of a video available on the Catalyst Customer Testimonial page. Click here to watch.
Reshoring our manufacturing operations was easier than we thought. We started our business out of our house. I wanted something that was more functional and designed well. And over time, we perfected it from going from an aluminum product to a plastic product. So we called Catalyst. It was super easy and sent them our drawings, sat down with the team, they talked about our design and they made it better. A designer can design something, but when it comes to production and the molds, I mean things can be more efficient and because they’re all in-house, it made it very seamless.
So in the meeting we had the industrial designer, we had one of the owners, we had the head of production and in charge of the molds. And so to have the mold and production person sitting in the same meeting as the owner and the designers. I think that’s really unusual. We realized that we were elevating the category because we were competing with products that were three dollars. But it did make a difference when we came to Catalyst. They showed us all the capabilities. They showed us how we can cut costs and work up with the molding and made a huge difference in regard to the fact that they make the molds here versus somebody making the molds and then bringing it to here for production.
And so the fact that they’re all in-house makes a huge difference. And you don’t have two entities miscommunicating, so the process goes a lot faster. People assume that when it comes to a toy, when it comes to a product that it’s made overseas. The more, you can show people that you can have a quality product and have a quicker turnaround time and can be price competitive, that you can show that it’s possible to reshore manufacturing. If I was working with somebody overseas, even in a normal situation, there’s a miscommunication typically. Maybe there’s some tiny little piece that needs to be refined. It doesn’t get refined. You take your product, everything’s wrong. Even getting your product here at a reasonable rate for shipping, for one, it takes six weeks to produce another six weeks to get here. In a normal situation, when things are really busy, it can take another month. You know, they’re not communicating with you necessarily. You just find out all of a sudden that there’s two more weeks of production and the container is not leaving for another week. So we were really adamant about products in the U.S. So there’s less logistics and carbon emissions.
We’re in Chicago. Catalyst is an Indianapolis. We wanted to be able to have the ability to drive down the way to meet the people that are making your product. I could see production. I could see how it works. They could show us the machinery. You know, Catalyst has it all in in the back. And so we always ask them, you know, what is our inventory? They can tell us in 2 seconds. Their production schedules are really tight. And so you know exactly when to expect it. And it’s never a situation where they’re telling us, oh, it’s another four weeks. They have never over promised and they’ve always exceeded our expectations. I’ve never had to call with a problem and it’s been nine years.
