Don’t underestimate the power of magic. It’s a lesson Chris Sutcliffe, founder and managing director of The Bean People, learnt early in his career. “We started as a home business making these little bath beans,” he recalls. “We took them to market and the rest as they say is history.” But it was not the bean (read product), he says, that was the differentiating factor, but rather the allure of what it was, the magic that was being created that had customers coming back again and again. It’s the same magic he applied to exporting when the opportunity arose. “To export and compete in the international market, you have to create an edge,” he says. The company still manufactures the very same bath beans that Sutcliffe and his wife Sharon started off with more than 30 years ago. Since then they have added another product range and become one of South Africa’s leading toy exporters. What makes the company successful is all the usual elements – a good quality product, a knowledgeable operating team, reliable workmanship, a sound strategy and a team of international agents that know their markets. But it also includes magic. Some call it creativity, others may refer to it as innovation. For Sutcliffe it is about delivering something that is unique, truly South African and proudly African. The concept behind the beans is pretty simple, he says. “Buy a bean, put it in your bath and watch it vanish. In its place a cute sponge toy appears.” The magic? That somewhere, anywhere in the world, a child can take a bath with a bright African animal transforming a relatively ordinary, everyday experience into something extraordinary, informative and imaginative. Pink elephants, blue dolphins, yellow octopuses, orange crocodiles and any other animal one can think of are all on offer. But moving thousands of tiny little beans from a factory in Cape Town to Namibia, Kenya, Germany, Hong Kong, the Czech Republic, Norway, to name but a few countries requires logistical precision. More than a 150 000 units of the product fill a container, and while the company mostly opts for LCL, keeping track of these beans is a full-time task. “Exporting is challenging,” says Sutcliffe who signed his first contract after a trade show in Nuremberg, Germany. “We took a chance, mortgaged the house, and took our home industry to a toy fair. We literally put all our cards on the table and went for it. On the last day of the show we signed some good clients and suddenly we were exporters.” He describes himself as a cautious businessman who believes in slow organic growth. “We took the time to get it right. The international markets come with regulations and standards, product compliance and safety requirements that we in Africa are not always used to. There were some huge hurdles to jump and it took years before we even considered ourselves close to being proficient at it.” Not to mention that it is an expensive endeavour. “If you want to be in that market, you have to go to the exhibitions, fairs and shows. You have to go and show the market what you have and what you can give them and how you compare to others. Then you need someone to represent you in that market, a local partner that you can create a synergy with. These are not easy or cheap accomplishments from a longdistance destination like ours.” And then comes dependability. “You cannot not deliver what you promised. Having a reliable supply chain is essential,” he says. He has used the same freight forwarder, a company that has specialised in the exporting of crafters’ goods, for the past ten years. “We have developed a very close working relationship and they truly understand what our business is about and how serious we are about getting things right.” While in all probability it will flow without issue nine times out of ten, when it does go wrong, it has severe consequences. “You need to have someone at hand who is able to fix whatever the problem is, as quickly as possible.” Because things will go wrong at times, says Sutcliffe. From customs processes to delivery delays there are more things that can go wrong when you are moving goods the size of tablets around the world. “A lot of times we prefer to use airfreight. Our product is small and light making airfreight a very reasonably priced option. When we move via sea we tend to opt for LCL, but we do also have orders where we fill up an entire container with Bath Beans and Sprudels.” The toy trade, while fun and colourful and magical on the one hand, is also one that is cutthroat, competitive and quite avaricious on the other. “It is also complex, with different rules for different markets. We need someone who is at the top of their game and understands these complexities no matter where our products go. Our forwarder has grown with us. There is a lot of trust involved. It is not about rates but reliability.” It is also about quality. “Even a small box has a lot of product in it for us and so it is crucial it arrives intact. We do not load our goods in substandard containers and have been known to send them back on arrival. When our goods arrive on the other side they cannot be dinged and damaged. That first impression of just the box is awfully important.” He says managing their export output is just as crucial. “We simply cannot have too much product on hand and at the same time we cannot have too little. We also have to ensure our factory is busy all year round – but we don’t want to see product gathering dust in a warehouse.” Sutcliffe has opted to employ local labour rather than automate the factory too much. While the company has invested in some machinery, most of the products are still hand manufactured. “We also use sheltered employment with many of our sponge products being cut at the factory by machine, but then pressed out individually by hand.” It’s a decision taken in the early days of the company to employ as many people as possible and is part of an approach aimed at making a difference in their local community. “We have managed to grow this business significantly over the past 30 years and there is room for even more growth, but we are proud to say we have done it without ever losing the heart or the essence of what we first created.”
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Our forwarder has grown with us. It is not about rates but reliability. – Chris Sutcliffe
