Supply chain challenges – a supplier’s perspective

We spoke to supplier member Roelofs and Rubens to get their take on the supply chain challenges facing many.

In business for about 15 years, Piet and Monty are a husband-and-wife artisan ‘cottage industry’ trading as Roelofs & Rubens. Together with a team of very talented people they design and hand-make a large range of ceramic hanging decorations and bespoke decorations for museums, cathedrals, historic properties, and other key visitor attractions. Currently, they have over 100 UK stockists and a few more internationally.

How have you been affected by supply chain issues in recent times? What do you see as the causes of those issues?

We haven’t experienced any real supply disasters. We produce our products and need only a few materials: earthenware clay, glaze, pigments, beads, ribbons, and packaging materials. We noticed that clay was only available in smaller blocks and glaze only available in smaller containers as our supplier wanted to overcome the rise in shipping costs and started shipping in larger containers less frequently. This means we wait longer to get out-of-stock materials. For our packaging materials we found there were a lot of certain sizes of boxes not available as there was a shortage of raw materials with our suppliers.

How have you overcome those challenges? 

In the very early stages of the supply chain issues, we decided to purchase a huge amount of clay, pigments and glaze and many boxes and cardboard bubblewrap, enough for us to produce all through 2021. Now, in the beginning of 2022, we already need to reorder some supplies, which might be a bit of a challenge.

What do you see as the current advantages of being a UK based supplier? And any disadvantages?

Being a UK manufacturer gives us an advantage with UK-based customers. For them, importing goods from EU countries is not as easy as it was due to extra costs and paperwork and importing goods from countries like China is less appealing due to supply chain costs and lead time challenges. The downside is that exporting to EU countries is not as easy and fast as it used to be. And EU based customers are now less enthusiastic to buy from a UK based manufacturer.

What’s coming up next for Roelofs & Rubens? What are you focused on for 2022?

Very much consolidating what we have; maintaining a good relationship with our existing customer base and doing our best to maintain a healthy and happy work environment for the fantastic team of talented people that work for us.

Click here to visit the Roelofs & Rubens website>>