Other than competing with prices, we can utilise other competitive advantages over Kievit…that is NSC representing NM in Thailand.…this means short lead time and have stock available any time for Dutchmill, so;
1. They don’t need to order and keep bulk stock at their warehouse.
2. They won’t have any delay delivery issue.
3. They able to order small quantity.
4. Whenever they require urgent stock.
My understanding is that Kievit doesn’t have distributor nor a warehouse in Thailand so Dutchmill require order bulk and keep stock in their own warehouse (those are all hidden costs for Dutchmill) and they will also face Kievit DHA stock expiring issue when purchase in bulk and can’t deplete the stock on time as Kievit 11% DHA shelf life is only 12 months.
According to our experiences, low price is always Kievit’s key strategy to win the business. Therefore, in my opinion, continue to lower the price may not be a wise option for both NSC and NM as we both lose our margins. If necessary (I will leave this to NSC’s judgement), we may have to walk away from this opportunity and let Dutchmill to learn their lesson in the hard way.
FYI – We have a potential customer in other country have experincing both quality and delivery on time issues with Kievit (their volume is also 2MT per year). They are now in the process qualifying NM D201 and planning to completely change over to NM as they don’t want deal with such issues with Kievit anymore. This potential customer has already accepted the price from our distributor that is much higher than Kievit offered.
Last but no least, it is very common that our competitors like DSM, BASF and Kievet never pay attention to small customers with small annula volume like 2MT or even 5MT. We have customers switched to NM due to poor quality and customer services from them.