Client Background
Our client is a pool equipment wholesaler based in Lyon, France, supplying more than 400 pool builders and service installers across France and Belgium. They had built a strong reputation in pumps and filtration and wanted to add an own-brand underwater LED range rather than resell someone else's catalogue.
The Challenge: Quality Failures and a Supplier That Could Not Do OEM
- 6% dead-on-arrival rate: Their previous supplier used gasket-sealed housings with inconsistent resin potting. Roughly one lamp in sixteen failed within the first month, and every failure meant an installer truck roll and a damaged relationship.
- No real OEM capability: The supplier would ship neutral white boxes only - no custom housing colour, no laser-etched logo, no French-language manual and no retail packaging.
- MOQ too high to test the market: Competing factories quoted 1,000 pieces per SKU, which was far more inventory than the client wanted to hold for a new category.
- Documentation gaps for the EU market: Their retail partners required CE, RoHS and EMC test reports plus a declaration of conformity file before listing anything.
The Solution: An OEM Program Built Around a Distributor's Economics
1. True private-label customisation. We produced the range in a custom housing finish with the client's logo laser-etched on the bezel, plus retail boxes printed to their artwork and a French-language quick-start manual. The lamps carry their brand, not ours.
2. Resin-filled construction to kill the DOA problem. The range is built on our fully potted IP68 platform: the driver and LED board are encapsulated in resin instead of relying on a gasket. This is the single change that removed the moisture failures their installers kept reporting.
3. Flexible MOQ and mixed containers. We opened the program at 300 pieces per SKU and allowed three SKUs to share one 20GP container, so the client could test the category without over-committing working capital.
4. 100% ageing and submersion testing with batch reports. Every unit runs a 48-hour powered ageing test followed by a submersion check. A batch QC report ships with each order, and we include 2% free spare units so their service team can swap a lamp the same day.
5. Complete certification package. CE, RoHS, EMC and IP68 test reports, plus declarations of conformity, were delivered as a document set their retail partners could file directly.
The Results
- DOA fell from 6% to 0.3% across the first three production batches.
- Launched in 11 weeks from approved sample to first container leaving Guangzhou.
- Three repeat containers in the first year, and the lighting category grew to a meaningful share of their revenue within two seasons.
- Installer complaints effectively eliminated - their service desk stopped logging underwater light callouts entirely after the switch.
"The difference was not the price. It was that we stopped apologising to installers. Our own brand is now on a product we are proud to put in front of them, and the MOQ let us prove the market before we scaled."
— Purchasing Manager, Pool Equipment Distributor, Lyon
Building Your Own Brand Range?
We run OEM and ODM programs for pool equipment distributors and brand owners worldwide - custom housing, packaging, manuals, certification files and mixed-SKU containers from 300 pieces. Tell us your target price band and market, and we will propose a spec that fits.