Manufacturing in the UK and Abroad: A Look at Betterbounce's Operations
At Betterbounce, we're proud of our manufacturing capabilities, both in the UK and abroad. Our 22,000 sqft facility in Leeds, West Yorkshire has been producing inflatables for over 35 years, and we have been importing certain ranges from Singapore for over 25 years. In this article, we'll take a closer look at how we operate, and explain the benefits of labor and overhead savings using cross-national manufacturing.
Manufacturing in the UK
Our main operations have and always will be in the UK. Our large team is responsible for cutting, printing, sewing, stuffing, palleting, packaging and everything in between on a daily basis, along with a hustling and bustling busy office on site. We do not buy from external factories, as buying replica products direct would be commercial suicide. All of our designs are created in-house by the same designers we've used throughout our 35 years of history, and we merely take advantage of outsourcing the labor and factory space.
Quality Control
We use the exact same materials we use in the UK and will not compromise on quality. Our engineers have created CAD, and CNC drawings conversion software that allows the Asian and European cutting machines to read our codes. This allows our historic UK designs to be cut, printed and manufactured offshore at really competitive prices ensuring accuracy to a 100th of a mm and giving us full control of manufacture. Unlike any other UK outsourced supplier or reseller, we are able to either create design files or receive foreign design files, and alter them to UK specifications right here at our desk in the UK for 100% compliance. We also ensure that we use the same Italian Spec fabric we have used for the past 15 years, that's been modified to include extra anti-fungicides, UV stabilizers, anti-moulding agents and lots of other cool additives to protect children's skin. The velcro, thread, webbing, steel, D rings, roofing materials, clear PVC and everything in between is identical in Asia and Europe for 100% consistency. No corners have been cut and all UK sourced as normal. The printing is shipped in from a skilled commercial print house to eliminate any issues and keep everything under control.
Quality Assurance
We have a full independent quality control process in place, and our director or representative flies out to the factories for regular testing after manufacture in exactly the same way we would do in the UK. We also test every single item for a 3rd time in-house under EN14960, EN71 and various other regulations before releasing them for sale. The current order split is roughly 55% the UK, 15% EU and 30% China and as explained above, any items from our 6+ factories lined up next to one another are totally indistinguishable. The only tell is the product serial number.
Benefits of Cross-National Manufacturing
Cross-national manufacturing allows us to take advantage of labor and overhead savings while maintaining strict control over the quality of our products. By outsourcing certain aspects of production to other countries, we're able to keep costs low while still producing high-quality inflatables that are compliant with all relevant regulations. Additionally, by maintaining control over the design process and using the same materials and techniques in all of our factories, we're able to ensure that our products are consistent and indistinguishable, regardless of where they were produced.
Conclusion
At Betterbounce, we're committed to producing the highest quality inflatables possible, and we're proud of our ability to do so both in the UK and abroad. We hope this article has helped
<< Return to news