Market intelligence and operational expertise from our teams in Europe and Asia.
Most European-branded toys are designed in Munich, Paris or Copenhagen — and built in Guangdong. This article maps the manufacturers who chose otherwise: from LEGO and Steiff to Croatia’s UNESCO-recognised wooden toy tradition, the producers that built durable competitive positions on European soil and the strategies that keep them there.
In 1989, Eastern Europe had the industrial base to supply Western Europe with the hardware it needed. Instead, European buyers flew to Guangdong. The story of how — and why — that thirty-year sourcing model is finally beginning to change.
Rising geopolitical tensions and post-pandemic supply chain vulnerabilities have pushed European manufacturers to rethink single-country concentration. We analyze the key considerations.
Vietnam has attracted $36B in FDI in 2024. But what does it really take to set up a successful manufacturing operation? Our team shares insights from the ground.
We've run dozens of lean transformation projects in Asia. Here are the five cultural and operational factors that determine success or failure.
As labor costs rise in Western Europe and supply chains shorten, Eastern Europe has emerged as a compelling industrial destination. Here's what you need to know.
From skipping factory audits to misunderstanding payment terms, we outline the most common — and avoidable — errors in cross-border industrial sourcing.
Most commissioning delays are predictable and preventable. Our engineers share the planning and execution strategies that consistently deliver on time.
Bulgaria's textile sector produces for Hugo Boss, Balmain, Chanel, and Givenchy — yet remains largely unknown as a strategic sourcing option for mid-market European brands. We examine why that is changing.
Portugal's FDI reached €13.2 billion in 2024 — a 19% increase. But behind the headline numbers, the picture is nuanced. We examine both the genuine case for investing and the friction points experienced operators encounter.
For decades, European procurement teams flew eighteen hours to factories in Asia while a country of 85 million people with a shared EU customs boundary sat four days by truck from Paris. What has changed since 2005 is what that closeness is worth.
CE marking is market access. ISO certification is supplier eligibility. Together, they are the conditions under which a manufacturer can compete in European markets at all. We examine why engaging a certification partner early is the most consequential decision most manufacturers delay.
Mattress manufacturing is a €40 billion global business equipped by specialized, capital-intensive machinery. For decades, Italian and Spanish suppliers dominated. Then Turkish manufacturers built something neither side anticipated: a credible industrial alternative that has reshaped the entire sector.
Asian production can be sustainable, but the proof requires more than collecting certificates. We unpack what OEKO-TEX, GOTS, FSC and ISO 14001 actually verify, where audit rigour breaks down, and what a credible eco-sourcing programme has to do beyond the supplier checklist before CSRD and CBAM make the gap legally consequential.
A €300 German-branded shower set and an €80 Chinese-branded one can share 70% of the same components by count. The remaining 30% — and the certification layer around them — is where the price gap is real. We map where shower products are actually made, what DVGW, ACS and EN 14428 verify, and which components inside the box determine five-year performance.