Most sourcing projects do not stall because there are no manufacturers. They stall because the first message reads “we want to produce a sleep supplement, what does it cost?” — and a question like that cannot be answered. What comes back is a range so wide it is useless, or nothing at all.
A brief is not paperwork. It is the smallest set of facts a production planner needs to put a number on your product without calling you first.
What a manufacturer actually needs
Seven details decide whether a quote is possible. Everything else is context.
| Detail | Why it decides the price |
|---|---|
| Product category and form | Capsules, powder, gummies and liquids run on entirely different lines |
| Target volume per batch | Drives the per-unit price more than any other single input |
| Formulation status | Finished recipe, rough concept, or “you develop it” |
| Certifications required | IFS, organic, GMP or halal narrows the shortlist immediately |
| Packaging | Primary and secondary packaging, and who sources it |
| Target launch date | Distinguishes a real project from a market survey |
| Market and channel | Retail, e-commerce or pharmacy changes labelling obligations |
Miss one and the manufacturer has to assume. Assumptions are what make two offers non-comparable.
Volume is the number everyone wants first
Per-unit cost is dominated by batch size. A manufacturer quoting 5,000 units and one quoting 50,000 units are not competing — they are answering different questions. If you genuinely do not know your volume, give a range and say which end you expect for the first production run.
“Certifications required” is not a wish list
Every certification you list removes manufacturers from your shortlist. That is the point — but only list what you actually need for your market and channel. Organic certification you will not use on the label costs you options for nothing.
Write the constraints, not the vision
Brand decks describe an ambition. A brief describes a box. The useful sentence is not “a premium product for health-conscious women” — it is “60 capsules per bottle, 12-month shelf life, retail price 29–39 €, launch in Q1, DE and AT only.”
Constraints let a manufacturer say no quickly. A fast no from a manufacturer who cannot run your form factor is worth more than a slow maybe.
Send identical briefs
The moment you tailor the brief per manufacturer, you lose the ability to compare the answers. Different inputs produce different assumptions, and you end up comparing a price that includes packaging against one that does not.
Send the same structured brief to everyone, then compare on the axes that matter: unit price at your target volume, minimum order quantity, lead time, and what is explicitly excluded.
What to do with the offers
Line them up on four columns and nothing else:
- Unit price at your target volume — not at the manufacturer’s preferred volume.
- Minimum order quantity — the number that decides whether you can start at all.
- Lead time — from purchase order to delivery, including packaging procurement.
- Exclusions — what the price does not contain. This is where offers that looked identical stop being identical.
If two offers differ by more than about 20 % on unit price at the same volume, one of them is solving a different problem. Ask which, rather than picking the cheaper one.
The shortcut
Writing this out once per project is the work. Writing it out once per manufacturer is what makes sourcing feel slow. Donau structures the brief once, distributes it to verified European manufacturers, and returns the proposals in a comparable shape — which is the same discipline described above, minus the copy-paste.