"Retailers are facing unprecedented challenges globally"

Global Industry Challenges

The global economy, and retailers who have come to rely on Asian manufacturers to supply their products in particular, are facing an era of unprecedented upheaval and exponential change, not seen in more than 50 years.

The consequences of the shifts in political relationships and trade agreements, the disruptions on global logistics, and combined with the changes within China and Asia since 2002 have created large scale challenges for businesses that have relied on Asian manufacturers that have been an integral part of many retailers’ businesses.
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Shipping costs have soared, transit times have doubled, or even tripled and, in many cases, become unreliable with no certainty that goods bought and paid for will arrive at the specified ports. Furthermore retailers are dealing with recurring stock shortages, and even worse, shipping costs that, in the furniture industry, have increased input costs to the point where entire product categories have become unviable.

For many retailers, the combination of increased costs and shortage of stock are existential problems that cannot be passed onto the end consumers.

Africa has the structural advantage of lower input and labour costs than Asia

and given Africas geographical location, shipping times are 75% less than those from manufacturers based in Asia. Unfortunately, for African, European and North American retailers, the poor management of companies in Africa, and the historical low levels of productivity has made African based suppliers unreliable and too expensive as a solution until now.

At Sonu, our team has come together to use our decades of experience in product design and engineering, material development, manufacturing, information technology and supply chain management to build a fully integrated supply chain that allows us to meet the needs ofAfrican and global retailers at internationally competitive prices, without the delays and increased shipping costs that have become the new norm.
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Our strategy is focused on applying world-class management and systems to create unrivalled speed, innovation and the digital integration of the supply chain whilst putting service, people and the environment at the core of what we do.

The problem for major retailers is that there are few design and manufacturing companies located in Africa and in Northern Hemisphere countries who can manufacture at the price points and lead-times to which consumers have become accustomed to over the past three decades.

Retailers cannot expect to maintain healthy growth and profitability with unreliable supply and rapidly rising costs, and local manufacturers are often not structured or managed to match the price points of its competitors factories.

In addition, the modern consumers, particularly the millennial and gen Z population, who are the biggest consumers of furniture and homeware products, are always connected, impatient and demanding, they want meaningful experience, expect greater transparency and insist on products that are manufactured in ways to meet environmental and sustainability goals.

Against this background, at Sonu we are focused on speed, innovation, digitisation and the development of focused, local manufacturing facilities that are centrally coordinated through our manufacturing management system.

Critical to the creation of internationally competitive supply chains in Southern Africa is the transformation of the entire supply chain to achieve internationally competitive prices, innovation, and the speed required by retailers operating in the furniture and homeware industries.

In order to eliminate waste throughout the product lifecycle and speed up the product design process, we have and continue to develop product design and material libraries that facilitate the use of 3D and virtual design technology that flows directly into our sampling, sourcing and manufacturing processes.  
Our technology platform help us to respond rapidly to the needs of and requests for new product designs from our customers, share concepts and ideas, perfect product designs, select sustainable and quality materials and refine product attributes in record time.  In addition to the speed of our design process, using digital technologies enables us to reduce the environmental impact and waste from sampling and production processes.
We have seen first-hand the positive impact these innovations can provide and are focused on expanding this initiative to drive ever more efficient and sustainable sourcing solutions for our customers.

Let’s grow together.

Creating value while building a sustainable supply chain of the future.

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