Hi
Thanks for the information
I am not sure what is happening with AJ Group.
I visited them back in February 2017 and had a very productive meeting and tour of their facilities. All was looking good for the future and they were very happy to work with us even though we are quite small compared to some of their companies they supply.
Then about a month or two later they had various meetings and informed us that they would no longer produce anything for us in small quantities - so we have to place orders of certain numbers for anything that was not 'off the shelf'. Then we started to have even more problems with them on delivery times. The promised 3 weeks turnaround time(their timescale suggestion, not ours) started to go as far as 12 weeks on some occasions.
We worked closely with them on a UK trade show, having promotional material made in an effort to become their main UK supplier. When we saw the images from the trade show we were left feeling insulted as a banner in the background clearly said "Looking for new UK Suppliers - get in touch to become a UK outlet".
Then the biggest problem we had was when we started to produce a new item for our company. We spent around 8 months making designs with them and also had samples made and AJ Group were more than happy with everything, so we placed a large order for these items. Another company complained that the item was 'similar' to one they sold but as they had no patents or copyright protection we proceeded with the item. AJ got cold feet. They pulled out of the deal with no explanation or no reasons. There was no legal reason why we could not produce the items. They even asked us to accept all liability should any problems occur. We paid for solicitors to draft up legal paperwork to that effect and they still just pulled out at the 11th hour. They just did not want any fuss from a smaller company.
With all these things in mind we closed our dealings with AJ Group. Having a good relationship with a supplier is key and it was getting to the point where they were not answering emails, not communicating with us properly when they were and kept changing their minds on things. Impossible to work with from our point of view as we expect a professional relationship.
When I toured their factory you see the scale of their work - they produce Stutterheim clothing, 66 North clothing, their own range plus also lots of other things (like rainwear for dogs and kids). I got the impression they were producing to the max and were not able to cope with the smaller companies anymore, unless you were prepared to wait a long time for goods.
I read online about their factory trying to expand to meet this - and they certainly have the space for this - but the main problem was staffing. From what I read they do not pay the best to the workers so most were coming in from outside the country. If you look at how much AJ Group items are, they are the cheapest supplier to buy from - those prices are low for a reason - their overheads are low, hence staff costs look like being low.
Thy still maintain a presence at various trade show trying to attract new business.
It is a shame as AJ Group products are great. The company, however, are far from great to deal with. We also saw slips starting to occur in the quality. Zips breaking, seams ripping, studs not being installed properly.
So if you now tell me that shops are closing I think maybe we will see AJ Group eventually move to a position where they only work in bulk for companies, which means smaller cheaper companies like ours can't keep going.
I guess we will see what happens going forward.