Capacity without a route to market
Manufacturers & exporters
You can make it. The question is who sells it in a country where nobody has heard of you — and whether the numbers still work once freight, duty and two layers of margin are in the price.
The problem
A manufacturer with real capacity and a good product is in a strange position internationally: the hard part — making the thing — is solved, and the easy-sounding part is where the company stalls for years.
The usual pattern is a trade fair, a handful of cards, two or three distributors who express interest, one who signs, and then silence. Meanwhile capacity sits idle and the export plan quietly becomes a slide that gets updated once a year.
The underlying problems are consistent: no view of how the category actually reaches buyers in that country, no way to tell a serious distributor from an available one, materials built for the home market, and a landed-cost calculation nobody has done properly.
What we do about it
We start with the economics and the channel, because both can end the project cheaply and early if the answer is no. Then we find the partners — or establish that the right route is direct — and work them properly.
- Market research & intelligence — which country, at what price, against whom, and what regulation requires before a first shipment
- Distributor & importer search — mapping the channel, screening candidates and approaching them in the local language
- B2B lead generation — where the route is direct, or where private-label buyers are the target
- Marketing & content production — catalogues, datasheets and brochures in the form a distributor needs to quote from
A typical engagement
Every company is different, so this is a shape rather than a promise. It is the sequence most manufacturers follow with us.
- Shortlist the markets — Two or three candidate countries compared on demand, price level, competitive density, regulatory barrier and logistics cost, ending in a ranked recommendation.
- Check the landed cost — Ex-works price plus freight, duty, clearance and channel margin, set against observed market prices — before anything else is committed.
- Map the channel — How your category actually reaches the buyer in that country, and which partner types control each step.
- Build and screen the candidate list — A scored list of distributors, importers or private-label buyers, reviewed by you before anyone is contacted.
- Approach and qualify — Contact in the local language with a proposition written for a distributor’s economics, followed up to completion, with a briefing on each serious candidate.
- Equip and close — Localised catalogue and datasheets, sample handling, pricing structure and terms, through to the first order.
What you end up with
- A ranked market shortlist with the landed-cost analysis behind it
- A channel map for the target country
- A scored, screened candidate list with qualification notes
- Export-ready catalogue, datasheets and brochure in the market’s language
- A shortlist of partners worth meeting, with conflicts and capacity checked
- Support through samples, pricing, terms and first shipment
Frequently asked questions
Can Third One help manufacturers enter new markets?
Yes — it is the client type we work with most. The sequence runs from market selection and landed-cost analysis through channel mapping and distributor screening to localised materials and the first order.
We have capacity but no export experience at all. Is that a problem?
No, and it is common. It changes where we start: more time on the basics of pricing structure, Incoterms, documentation and what a distributor will expect, and less assumed knowledge in the materials we produce.
Can you find private-label buyers rather than distributors?
Yes. For manufacturers with spare capacity and no brand ambition in the target market, private label is often the faster route, and the search is run the same way: map the buyers, score them on fit and volume, approach and screen.
What if the landed cost does not work?
Then we tell you before you spend anything further, and we look at whether a different market, a different pack format or a different channel changes the answer. A project that stops at this stage has done its job.
Tell us the market you want to enter.
We reply within one business day with an honest view of whether — and how — we can help.