Any interest in producing laundry tongs on a small scale?

[dance]

Would anyone like to quote for producing laundry tongs for me? I potentially have a very small market for them - but am not currently setup for production - even on a small scale.

To be made from a wood like beech or bamboo, I guess? The metal 'spring' would have to be good and strong as these are intended for actual use as a laundry aid - not a display item!

 

[sunnybob]

You will never be able to match price with a commercially available item like that. The cost alone of beech and spring steel will make it uneconomic to compete with the far east.

 

[AJB Temple]

Plastic tongs in bulk at circa £2 wholesale.
Far eastern wooden ones on line (but often out of stock) at under £5 retail.

 

[AndyT]

From memory, I think birch is more likely to be the historically correct choice of wood.

 

[shed9]

Always surprises me when people ask if anyone is interested in manufacturing something and the default response is a queue of people suggesting why it can't be done.

I appreciate the concept of reality but not all product needs to cheap or compete with the Far East. Some markets will pay the relevant price for handmade items.

 

[sunnybob]

nobody is saying it cant be done, but it cant cant be done competitively.

Anyone in the western world who has to make those as a job will want at least a tenner each for his labour. Plus materials, plus shipping, plus taxes, and by the time you add your profit, those will be closer to £40 a pair.

If you can sell a set of laundry tongs for £40, then youre in with a chance.

 

[PAC1]

Always surprises me when people ask if anyone is interested in manufacturing something and the default response is a queue of people suggesting why it can't be done.

I appreciate the concept of reality but not all product needs to cheap or compete with the Far East. Some markets will pay the relevant price for handmade items.

An opportunity for you then!

 

[doctor Bob]

Always surprises me when people ask if anyone is interested in manufacturing something and the default response is a queue of people suggesting why it can't be done.

me as well.

 

[NazNomad]

Some markets will pay the relevant price for handmade items.

... but we're talking about flippin' laundry tongs, not a child's rocking horse.


''ooh Mary, I must show you my new laundry tongs, they were handcrafted by artisan woodworkers from the Black Forest''.... never going to be a conversation, is it?

 

[shed9]

''ooh Mary, I must show you my new laundry tongs, they were handcrafted by artisan woodworkers from the Black Forest''

The thing is, these markets actually exist and they specifically don't want Far East and actually feel they get better value when they pay a significant price.

I appreciate that pricing needs to be competitive but not always is my point. Some customers either appreciate the value in traditional hand made or sometime just simply buy into their own perceived hype of it. I also accept that these are just laundry tongs but without knowing the target customer you only have half the picture is all I'm saying.

I see a lot of repatriation of product in my job, things you would assume were just too embedded into low-cost economies for there to be any leverage in competitive pricing in the UK. A lot of markets and sectors are now starting to feel the pinch of off-shoring manufacture in my opinion. Cost effective product is no longer cost effective when your Far East supplier holds your stock for 3 months on a container somewhere in the middle of the ocean purely to use it as collateral for financing loans or interest. Neither it is effective when it turns up defective and the turn around is just not viable often resulting in you going back to your original UK supplier.

Don't get me wrong, there are some superb Far East manufacturers but cost cutting in a growing economy can only go so far before the seams start to stretch.

 

[t8hants]

It may not apply to laundry tongs, but there are a lot of people that esteem enhanced value.
Remember what happened to Ratner's when Gerald actually told the truth about 80% of the product on offer, his market collapsed because the illusion was shattered.
For every one who will only buy an item cheap, there will be another who will want to pay over the odds for something with perceived enhanced value.
Male jewelry like cameras, watches, woodworking hand tools are all classic examples of enhanced priced items giving feelings enhanced value and worth to some purchasers as well.
There is a deep vein of truth in that 'hand crafted firewood' video.

 

[tomatwark]

There are a lot of things like this, that if run as a business making the single item would fail.

But as a side line with the right jigs could be made to pay, especially if you were say for example able to use off cuts from other work.

There will only be a limited market but there will be folks out there who will pay more for something that can be mass produced for a bowel of rice per week.

 

[woodbrains]

Hello,

Paint it green and grey and call it a FESTONG or something. Probably sell for £100 a pop to the fan boys. :lol:

Mike.

 

[acewoodturner]

Why would anyone need to use laundry tongs these days anyway. I am 53 and can remember my mum using them with our twin tub to move wet and hot laundry from the washing tub to the spinning tub. You don't need tongs for the modern washing machines. Or am I missing something!

 

[NazNomad]

Why would anyone need to use laundry tongs these days anyway.

I think elderly people can use them to reach things on high shelves.... also useful for those stubborn nose hairs.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Why would anyone need to use laundry tongs these days anyway!

Essential genuine artisanal items for salads at certain north London postcodes and rather exclusive self service salad bars I hear, particularly at effete fund raising activities for those including top end movers and shakers that belong to the barely paying tax bracket (despite being loaded), e.g., celebrity auctions at opera sponsorship/fund raising events, crowdsourcing promotions (meet and greets) for the hipster crowd, plugging your latest programme idea to BBC/ ITV/ C4 executives, and so on. Slainte