International team,
Over the course of the last few months, we have run into a significant issue with stock at one of our suppliers on a product that was launched in the US at Lowe’s last spring. For a variety of reasons, we probably have 3 years worth of stock in our supply chain from Lowe’s to our warehouse in the US and at our suppliers’ warehouse. We are getting pressure from our supplier on taking additional inventory off of their hands (they are a new supplier, so while we can buy some delay the likelihood is we will have to make some purchases in 2016), but right now we do not have an outlet for this product so we would be buying to put into our warehouse to hold.
See attached. It is a very nice looking product, though I understand the application may not be applicable in some markets. The ask is to consider our channels to market and identify any potential avenues to sell this product even if we have to unload in a single bulk buy at lower margins. We’ll have to be careful it doesn’t end up on a website at prices lower than Lowe’s, but I think we can manage that as needed. And, if done internationally it poses much less risk with our relationship with Lowe’s. Maybe there is a dealer that would buy 5,000 of these and distribute them in a local market?
Please send me and Jim a note if you have ideas. Jim Sweeney, I know this is on your radar for international Tmall, hopefully that might still be an option.