Your signature design of plancha

Dilemma  of plancha importers

Ever since Brandon entered into the French plancha market in the year of 2006, we notice that our customers are always faced with a dilemma.  France, considering its population of 63 Million people, does not have the same market size as North America which most Chinese factories expect.  When plancha importers plan to market a unique plancha design, but with an annual demand of no more than a few thousand units, they are faced with a dilemma:

With a small volume, it is unlikely for them to negotiate exclusivity of an existing plancha design with the manufacturer.

Can they ask a manufacturer to tailor make?   The first obstacle is the small volume, which may not justify the investment in tooling.  Even the tooling investment is settled, the next hurdle is the manufacturing cost.  Economies of scale cannot be built up when small batches are made.  As a result, the final product will normally be of a high cost.  Also, the new design will normally require a separate CE certification, which adds to the cost of development.  All such costs, when added up, are so high that it is not easy for a new plancha marketer to get the products into the market at a competitive cost.  

This is where Brandon comes in to help.

Brandon provides a signature design to various customers

Other than making plancha, Brandon's background is a manufacturer of commercial cooking equipment; that is, we supply equipment to hotels and restaurants.  Over the years, we have accumulated years of cooking technology which we can easily transfer into the plancha.  We are capable of easily changing the appearance too.  For example, instead of stamping the housing in one shot, we utilize our standard tooling to cut, punch, bend and sometimes weld the housing together.   This is what we term Flexi Manufacturing.   Mass production of large quantity is effectively achieved by stamping, but mass production of smaller batches is better served by flex manufacturing, which is more cost effective.

OPP Classic, 1 burner

For example, in the realm of our low cost plancha, the following Brandon collections have evolved, with a distinctive different design.  More are actually coming up . . . 

1.          OPP classic

• Very basic cooking plate

2.          OPP Silver

•  The rim of cooking plate is curved, with the edges expanding outward.



OPP Silver, 3 burner

•  The oil collector (crumb drawer) is located in the front.

3.          OPP Tempo

• The rim of cooking plate is straight.
• The oil collector (crumb drawer) is located in the right.

OPP Tempo 2 burner

As shown in the photos, the appearance of various collections are rather different, so it gives the plancha marketers an advantage of not having to go into price undercutting with each other due to same product specification

In France, some of the above collections are already sold on an exclusive basis to different customers.  However, if necessary, Brandon will not hesitate to come up with more collections to afford new plancha sellers with their own signature design.  Should the customer request so, color is added to the housing by means of epoxy coating. 

We share some of the CE certification cost:

Should CE certification cost arise, Brandon will also share some of the burden with the customer, thus clearing the path of the many obstacles to plancha marketing.

It is Brandon's ultimate goal that plancha importers all compete in a healthy market environment, and that consumers are free to choose the plancha image that they most identify with.  

Feel free to visit our website http://www.brandon.com.hk.   Incidentally, we have uploaded a lot of videos about plancha cooking in YouTube.   Have a look.  :-)