Three gins that are not yours
Alongside your own range, you make gin for a hotel group, a restaurant and a start-up brand. One uses a recipe you developed for them, another brought their own. Their bottles and labels are in your stores. The start-up wants a new flavour and sent three rounds of sample feedback by email. The hotel group reorders twice a year and assumes you remember what they had last time.
Why private label work gets tangled
Each brand is a small project on top of your own production, handled by whoever took it on. Specs, sample rounds and approvals are in email. Client-owned packaging is mixed with yours. Repeat orders rely on finding the last batch record. Your production system is built for your products, and client products either do not fit or clutter it.
- Specs and approvals are in email threads.
- Sample rounds are not numbered or recorded.
- Client-owned bottles and labels are stored with yours.
- Repeat orders depend on finding the last batch record.
- Invoicing covers spirit, bottling and materials pieced together by hand.
What the tangle costs
Spirit made to an old spec, which is embarrassing and expensive. Client bottles used in your runs or yours in theirs. Slow sample rounds that frustrate clients. Invoices that miss items. And the owner's time spent answering clients' questions that a record could have answered.
Private label clients are often small brands whose whole business depends on your spirit being the same every time. A slip that would be a minor annoyance on your own range can be a serious problem for them, and they will remember it when they choose where to make their next product.
Capacity is the other hidden cost. Private label runs take still time and bottling line time that your own releases may need. Without a record of what each client's work actually uses, it is hard to tell whether a client is worth keeping or quietly crowding out your own range.
A client record for each brand
- Each client brand has a record with its products, and each product has an approved specification with a version number and approval date.
- Sample rounds are numbered, with the recipe tried, the sample sent and the client's feedback recorded against each round.
- Approval of a round creates the new approved spec. Production can only use approved versions.
- Client-owned packaging is booked in as the client's stock and drawn down by their bottling runs.
- Orders create production and bottling jobs from the approved spec, linked to your normal plans.
- A client portal, if you want it, shows their orders, stock of their packaging and documents.
- Invoices are drafted in Xero from the job: spirit, bottling, your materials and any storage.
| Item | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Specification | Email thread | Approved version |
| Sample rounds | Scattered feedback | Numbered, with feedback |
| Client packaging | Mixed with yours | Held as client stock |
| Repeat order | Find the old record | Created from approved spec |
| Invoice | Pieced together | Drafted from the job |
Private label work that runs on rails
Every client product is made to the approved spec. Sample rounds move faster because feedback is organised. Client packaging is never used for the wrong product. Repeat orders are quick to set up. And the owner can see which private label clients are worth the time and capacity they take.
Is this your private label work?
- Client specs and approvals live in email.
- Sample feedback is hard to follow across rounds.
- Client packaging is stored with yours.
- Repeat orders need detective work.
- Private label invoices are built by hand.