If you’ve been following my trip to China to buy fireworks for Skylighter, you’ve seen me mention Matt Palaszynski.  While I was on the road, Dave, one of Skylighter’s customers, asked me to contact a particular Chinese fireworks company in Liuyang for him.  He had had several phone and email interactions with the Chinese company and was considering ordering some fireworks from them.

I hooked my customer up with Matt.  Here’s a slightly edited copy of Matt’s letter to Dave, my customer.  The important thing is this.  It is VERY HARD for us in the US to deal directly with any Chinese fireworks factory (or sales agent) right now.  I would not advise it, unless you are prepared to have your own translator, make several long and expensive trips to China for each order you place, and have low expectations of delivered product quality.  You simply have no idea what the complexities are, nor how many things have to be handled correctly in order for you to get your order.  Matt’s letter to Dave is right on target.

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Dave,

Don’t know if you care to hear my pitch, but…

I will start by saying that I think [name deleted] is a good company.  They have been around for awhile, have an established customer base, and are legitimate.

However, they are not a factory.  They are a fireworks trading company.  Which is exactly the same thing that my company is–a fireworks trading company.  We take orders from you and we place and manage orders with various China factories.

For the most part, factories do not sell direct.  They sell through trading companies like [name deleted] and my company.  I guess about the only way that I can prove this to you is through our pricing.  I am fairly confident that I can meet or beat any prices that [name deleted] is offering you.  Not that you want to buy from the lowest bidder, however.  My point it that if they were a factory, they should be much cheaper that I am.  I am willing to bet that I can compete pretty much head to head, as I am willing to bet that they are buying from the same factories that I am.

Harry at Skylighter’s point is that you don’t want to deal directly with a factory.  He is correct in that most factories are not set up for sales.  Legally, they do not have government export licenses, and commercially they typically do not employ sales staff.  A good factory is just that, a factory.  It is the trading company that invests the time to understand the customer requirements and transfer them into technical manufacturing documents that the factory uses to produce to your specs.   That service is part of the value that we add to earn our profit.

Finally, I think my company has been successful due to our deep knowledge of fireworks and our professional business structure.   I don’t know Julie at [name deleted], but I know her job profile.  She most likely graduated from the Changsha or Liuyang foreign language institute with a 2 year degree in English.  She is probably anywhere from 18 – 25 years old.  She probably has never shot a Class B display herself.  I can guarantee that she has never shot one in the USA.  She is paid a very low fixed wage and she is given a commission for all new customers that she brings in.   She most likely does not get a whole lot of support from [name deleted].  Because of the desire of the company to quickly grow, she is expected to coordinate most of the details of your order.  Critical details like factory down payments, production schedules, and shipping are often to be dealt with after the customer contact has been signed.  I am certain that she is pleasant, bright, and very hard working.  Most likely, she can spend an inordinate amount of time on you… most likely because you are one of her only potential customers.  Maybe she will get lucky and all the details will fall into place for her.  Maybe not.   She does not have much to lose… as opposed to you.

My company is also a Liuyang Trading Company.  Yes, I am an American, but I am not your competitor.  I only sell full containers direct from China.  I do not wholesale or retail in the USA.  I don’t shoot displays.  Right now almost 50% of my business is manufacturing private label product for some of the USA’s biggest companies.   We have a large account right there in MO.  We manufacture for large US fireworks retailers whose names you know, including Skylighter.   So, if you are looking for your own brand, we can help. 

I have years of first-hand experience in fireworks displays and consumer fireworks design in the US market.  Our staff all have deep experience;  even our equivalent of Julie was the teacher at the Liuyang foreign language institute, not just the student.  None of our staff are paid by commission.  I personally think it just leads to problems in the long run.  I see lots of upfront sales effort and then little follow through for commission based employees.  We stick it out to the gory end with each of our customers. For the most part, I am the main person to interface with the customer to ensure the smoothest communication.

All the best,

Matt

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What Matt didn’t say, and I want to elaborate on, is this.  You need someone to shepherd your order through the whole process.  From specifying what you want to getting it delivered to your doorstep, if you do not have someone like Matt managing the process, you are in for a lot a trouble and disappointment.

Bottom line:  if you want to import Chinese fireworks, and you have never done it before, do not try this at home.   Questions?

Harry Gilliam
Chinese Fireworks Importer Survivor

Pitfalls of Buying Fireworks In China Yourself is a post from: Confessions of a Fireworks Man