Product Safety in the promotional products industry is once again in the news....and frankly this issue is not going away. If anything, it's going to become even bigger as we move forward and and issue that I, as a seller of promotional product advertising, needs to consider every single day and with every single order that I process.
The latest case was made public on December 22 by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. 19,000 promotional knives were voluntarily recalled by distributor 5.11 Tactical because a number of them failed to lock in their 'open' position. The CPSC investigation is ongoing, and there has been, to date, one reported incident of an end user of the knife suffering an injury (a minor one) due to the issue. The knives were manufactured by a supplier in China, and the recall was voluntary.
When I heard about this, a couple of thoughts immediately came to mind. First, it's a real good thing that both the supplier and distributor of the knives stood behind the products they sold. In this industry, that's not always going to be the case. Ours is a very competitive business -- and often in the quest to win business, distributor companies will take risks -- for example, they'll be willing to roll the dice with a foreign manufacturer they haven't worked with before in order to be able to sell the product at a price a few cents below a competitor. Another thought is that not all overseas manufacturers have the commitment to product safety and quality that's expected here in the United States. With some of these entities, caveat emptor most definitely applies.
In some instances, when a problem like this occurs, the supplier won't always stand behind the products they sold. Maybe there's little or no prior relationship between the distributor and manufacturer. Maybe the manufacturer required a deposit of half down with the balance due before the order shipped -- or maybe even to be paid completely up front -- trust me this happens. Suppliers have been known to walk away from situations like this leaving the distributor holding the bag and on the hook big time in terms of liability. Smaller companies without the financial resources of say, a Geiger, are one situation like this away from being put out of business.
This is where the relationships between manufacturers and distributors are key. We at Geiger insist that our core suppliers (we call them our Gold and Silver level Production Partners) provide complete documentation on safety compliance for the products they sell. That's one little bit of peace of mind you're going to get when dealing with us that you won't necessarily receive from most other distributors in our industry.
And this is just the latest incidence. Are you familiar with Proposition 65? If any promotional products you're buying are going to be handed out in California, you had better be. And if promo items you're handing out are going to be primarily targeted at kids ages 12 and under, the guidelines for lead content in those items recently got tougher.
These are all examples of what's going on with the current regulatory climate both in Washington and at the state level. And its affecting the promotional products industry big time.
Know however, that Geiger is committed to ensuring that the products we recommend and that you purchase from us either will be fully compliant with the tighter product safety regulations that now exist - or if they're not, we're going to tell you that up front. We are continually working with our production partners in this area and its one of the value added benefits that we provide our clients.
My pledge for 2010 is to continue to monitor this issue so that should a situation with one of you arise where we need to consider safety and liability issues, Geiger and I will be able to steer you in the right direction.
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