KENYA · GUIDE 1000 · EDITION 4.2
Packing crate making in Kenya: Customers and Market Demand
The buyer and the buying decision
manufacturers and transport businesses The offer to test is: Packing crates designed for an agreed non-hazardous load
Design crates for actual nonhazardous contents, routes, and access with competent packaging advice, assigning protection, loading, transport, and export-treatment responsibilities before drawing or promising shipment suitability.
Separate interest from an accepted order
Build one trial crate and obtain competent packaging assessment
The purpose of this test is to establish whether the buyer accepts the specified result, delivery arrangement and payment terms. An encouraging interview does not establish repeat demand. Ask what the buyer currently uses, what would make them change supplier and who has authority to approve the first order. Record a refusal as carefully as an enquiry so that unsuccessful offers do not disappear from the evidence.
Collect evidence specific to this offer
Keep drawings, contents, competent advice, materials, inspections, protection decisions, and handovers so changed loads, routes, or export needs receive review rather than automatically inheriting earlier crate suitability.
| Question to resolve | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|
| What exactly will the buyer accept? | Have the buyer or competent adviser review trial crates against drawings and contents, checking dimensions, joints, access, protruding fasteners, and handling rather than treating empty-box appearance as load verification. |
| What is included in the first trial? | Design crates for actual nonhazardous contents, routes, and access with competent packaging advice, assigning protection, loading, transport, and export-treatment responsibilities before drawing or promising shipment suitability. |
| How will a prospect see the offer? | Show local manufacturers a measured trial crate, drawing and inspection record, clearly excluding unverified load ratings or export-treatment certification. |
| What must happen before repeating the trial? | Sound construction matched to the approved packing plan |
Decide whether to continue
Review the specification with the buyer before committing to tools or stock. A trial is commercially useful only if actual costs, rejected work, time spent and cash collected can be reconciled. Neat crates fail when contents can move or access conflicts with loading, making competent shipment-plan review more useful than unsupported load ratings or exterior-only photographs.
If a buyer changes the required output, record a new scope and re-cost the test. Do not count a request for a different product as proof of demand for the original one. Keep personal contact details in your private records and use customer statements publicly only with permission.
Turn the example into a buyer test
Fictional local display-crate prototype: one plywood box with draft clear interior600×400×350 mm, built from12mmpanels. Cut base/lid624×424 mm(two), long sides624×350 mm(two), ends400×350 mm(two). Draft exterior624×424×374 mm. Not a certified shipping, lifting or stacking design; competent packaging/carpentry review required.
| Buyer discussion | Evidence to retain |
|---|---|
| Specification to confirm | No payload, stacking or lifting capacity is invented. |
| Output to inspect | Do not claim a passed load/drop test; export wood requirements require authorised treatment/mark review. |
| Failure that can defeat acceptance | Panels do not fit |
Ask the buyer to describe one acceptable and one unacceptable result. Record the decision maker, price basis, quantity, handover point and payment date privately. A sample request, an encouraging conversation and an accepted order are different evidence. Keep the first commitment within your demonstrated capacity; no customer interview or successful trial is asserted here.
What a failed test should change
Compare actual thickness and cut geometry.. If the offer cannot meet that check, revise the specification or process before promising a repeat. Keep rejected offers and reasons in the same register as positive replies so that your record does not exaggerate demand.