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Case Study:
Fleming Factory

(re)ALIGN Expansion Sherpas help major candle manufacturer to develop and execute an “Integrated Marketing” go-to-market process, which doubled its USA market footprint in 30 months.

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Vincent Wong – co-owner

Factory co-owner addressing his team during (re)ALIGN
Workshop at Fleming factory in Vietnam

“(re)ALIGN’s team of hands-on, industry-experienced Sherpas collaborated well with our team. They added a ton of value by assembling a team of industry partners (sales, design and sales support, suppliers along with organizational training). Benno made sure the strategy was executed and clearly communicated. After 30 months of tight collaboration, our revenue opportunity for this year more than doubled compared to before engaging (re)ALIGN. We’re excited about the future again.”
Vincent Wong – co-owner

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Background: Fleming’s Story

  • Fleming is a Hong Kong-owned candle manufacturer, exporting to prime retailers in the USA and UK since 1993. Laser focus on production excellence, safety testing capacity, “quality on time” delivery with competitive pricing and being first to open a Vietnam factory in 2004 (in addition to China factory) helped to fuel steady growth.
  • While the focus on manufacturing excellence and product development enabled them to build and keep a highly automated, 150,000 square foot facility with over 850 workers humming (“a great kitchen” in the owners’ words), Fleming nonetheless hit a growth ceiling, because it lacked an effective, integrated marketing-driven go-to-market process (“we didn’t have a great maître’d and waiters”, using the owners’ restaurant analogy).
  • Fleming needed experienced bench-strength, a “face” in their main market (USA) to develop and then execute an integrated go-to-market process to re-energize their growth – selling to the right customers.

Challenge:

Quickly establish a “face” in the USA market to enable aggressive growth

  • Fleming had achieved shy of 1% market share in a fairly stable candle market, and then hit a growth ceiling.
  • Internally they lacked design and sales support, effective marketing collateral, and product development resources to quickly respond to market opportunities.
  • Externally, Fleming lacked access to competitive analysis (guiding its choice of ideal prospects) and to sales reps who can leverage customer relationships.

Strategy: develop & execute an Integrated Marketing approach to grow revenues

  • Growth Evaluation
  • Phase I – Roadmaps
    • Marketing Roadmap (“Integrated Marketing”)
      • Competitive analysis, Vietnam & USA visits
      • Prioritize prospects, brand matrix (own/private label)
      • Time & action plans (for foundation work)
    • Financial Roadmap (“Business Rationale”)
      • Business model to validate project ROI
  • Phase II – Execution
    • Foundation work
      • Develop brand, assortment, sales presentations
      • Recruit sales reps and designer
    • Big sales results and smooth off-boarding

Deliverables: Execution Foundation work

  • Assembled a Sherpa team of ‘been there done that’ experts to provide deep market insight and execution know-how.
  • Trained client team in Vietnam for effective collaboration in product development & quoting & sampling process (incl. RACI charts and meeting cadence).
  • Developed product assortment to show off factory capabilities and gain customer confidence.
  • Developed national brand AVARIA and built sales tools (branded website www.avariahome.com, company profile, presentation templates) to quickly build credibility with target market.
  • Hired a sales force (variable cost model) and collaborated for effective sales presentations.
  • Collaborated with product development and tradeshow work.

Deliverables: Execution of Roll-out, initial sales results

  • (re)ALIGN and appointed sales teams facilitated new business development, and opened 6 national accounts who made multi-million-dollar initial PO commitments.
  • Conducted on-site meetings in the US and Asia to successfully onboard new customers.

Outcomes

  • Collaboration between Fleming and (re)ALIGN led to
    • Better internal processes (both pre/post-sale)
    • New 8-figure additional revenue opportunity and customer relationships
    • Fleming purchased land for a second factory to manage its growth