Sales with market proximity

?A further major step for us was being able to recruit Jens Brand in 2004 as our first sales employee. Brand already disposed of extensive branch knowledge due to the experience he gained with his former company,? remarked Halfar. In 2005 we also employed Peter Leseberg as the new Sales & Marketing Manager. Germany is divided up into three sales areas, a number of the European markets such as Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia or Eastern Europe fall under the responsibility of Bielefeld. In other countries the wholesalers, who supply the distributors, operate as sales representatives for Halfar. Each sales team comprises of three employees. ?All three are potential contact partners for the promotional products distributors and are thus correspondingly informed about all current projects,? explained Leseberg. ?They are not only responsible for the sales side of things for their customers, but are also involved in the production processes, i.e. from the development of a bag right through to its delivery. In this way the distributors can be sure that they will receive a fast and absolutely reliable feedback.? To this end each of the employees is trained as a bag specialist and can answer detailed questions, for instance regarding the customs formalities, freight handling, materials or estimated delivery times. ?We lay great importance on providing our distributors with honest and reliable information,? emphasised Leseberg. ?We can accurately weigh up the situation in China due to our many years of experience there and thanks to our good contacts. This allows us to predict the delivery times with extreme precision.?


Bag know-how

As a manufacturer of technical bags, the team of the bag people disposes of a production know-how, which is unique in this form in the promotional products sector. Halfar is also quite at home in the fields of legal stipulations, bans on certain ingredients and product safety. Via the cooperation with the JCK subsidiary, Labtech, an accredited inspection laboratory, the bag models are subjected to comprehensive material and strain tests.
Halfar?s USP also includes being able to produce special designs in Europe. 80% of the bags produced to meet individual customer requirements are made in Asia and the rest is manufactured at a production site in the Czech Republic. Favourable prices from Asia are combined with the flexibility of European production for the ?Corporate Bags? line ? an offer for shoulder bags that is based on the building block principle. The body of the bag is pre-manufactured in Asia and finished off with an individual flap in Europe. There is a choice of 37 flap colours. Alternatively, individual customer-specific sewable materials can be implemented.
Companies, who prefer an even more personalised option, can on request receive further support regarding the graphic and design possibilities. The prototypes are then produced in the company?s in-house sample shop.