
WHAT RCC CAN & CAN NOT DO
CAN WE MAKE THIS A RUSH ORDER?
It’s our most common request – and often, we can juggle things to suit. Except at Christmas! Get those orders in early. From mid-October through mid-November, Cambodia celebrates a series of major holidays, and in December most of our weavers are harvesting their village rice crops, so get those orders in even earlier. We strongly recommend that Christmas orders be placed on an ‘indent’ basis – let us know months ahead of time when you’ll want to receive the order. This allows us to schedule your production in advance, to beat the annual traffic jam. Your payments will be due when your order is produced, not when the order was received. With each order we receive, we will send you a projected date of completion and shipment. That production time will take into account any other orders currently in the works, and we won’t interrupt your production because someone else has asked for a rush order. Orders from independent producers (that is, products not made from silk or leather) usually can not be rushed. These are self-employed producers who work alone or in small groups. They don’t hold much stock, and they don’t have phones for quick communications.
CAN WE FILL THIS ORDER FROM STOCK AND SEND IT RIGHT AWAY?
Probably not, unless the order is small. Rehab Craft invests its money in people, not in inventory sitting on shelves. We do not hold great quantities of products or silks. That way, you know that each new order creates new employment – and that’s also why we can’t vary our export terms of payment. We really do have to buy materials each time.
CAN WE SEND YOU A SET OF COLOUR SAMPLES?
We can send you samples of chemically-dyed silk, although we change our colors regularly. Ordering old colors takes more time, since we need to give the weavers time to produce the silks. We can also produce our designs in different colors for you – although, again, it takes a bit of time to make the silk. We don’t send samples of natural dyes, because each shade is available only through a very short season, and there is much greater color variation than with chemical dyes. Therefore, natural-dye color samples can be misleading.
CAN WE GUARANTEE EXCLUSIVITY OF YOUR OWN DESIGNS?
Absolutely. If you invest in the development of your own design, we won’t duplicate it for ourselves or for others unless you tell us that you don’t mind. If you design a product which is made by independent producers (that is, not a silk-and-leather product), then we can not guarantee that others will respect your exclusivity – the concept is not widely understood or observed in Cambodia.
WILL WE AGREE NOT TO SHIP OUR OWN PRODUCTS TO ANYONE ELSE?
No. Rehab Craft exists to create employment. If you want an exclusive import arrangement in your market, you would have to guarantee a regular purchase large enough that we can turn away other buyers. However, we do promise three things. First, we promise that we will not undercut your purchase price – all our export customers pay the same prices. Second, if you invest in a particular line of goods, we will not sell the same thing, at the same time, to a retailer in the same place – we won’t compete with ourselves. And we will tell you if anyone nearby is currently carrying the products that interest you. If you have a particular concern about competition, please let us know.
CAN YOU IMPORT ON CONSIGNMENT?
No. We can’t send goods overseas without payment. Our production team and our suppliers can not be paid unless we have been paid.
CAN YOU HAVE A VOLUME DISCOUNT?
We used to work that way. Why did we stop? We found that the best way to create employment was to offer every customer the best possible price for every product. Our export prices are now fixed, with Rehab Craft ‘earning’ only 7% to cover our expenses – the rest goes straight to our suppliers and producers. So you can be confident that your medium-sized order is treated the same way as our biggest buyers, every time.
CAN WE GUARANTEE OUR PRICES?
Rehab Craft has been reviewing prices closely – and they’ve dropped over 40% in a single year. We do a major price review each May and November, and any sudden changes in our material costs might necessitate changes in between those times. Our aim is to keep the lowest possible prices that allow us to buy top-quality materials, and pay fair wages for skilled work. With each order, we will send you a pro-forma invoice; so you’ll have a chance to confirm prices before you commit to any purchase. If your price list is out of date, we’ll e-mail you an update.
CAN WE PROVIDE PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS FOR YOU?
Certainly – we’d be happy to do so. We can supply brochures or, for the cost of reproduction, photographs of any size, a copy of our video (“Creating Employment for Cambodians with Disabilities”, running time about 15 minutes), or we can send someone to attend and speak at your promotional events – although the travel costs will be your responsibility unless we happen to be in your neighbourhood. If you can think of any other way that we can assist you to market Rehab Craft’s goods, please let us know!
House #50, St.Phlauv, Sangkat Toeuk Thla, Khan Sen Sok, Phnom Penh
+855 23 882 685 / +855 12 879 314