Private label,
without the tooling bill.
The forms are already cut and proven in production. What you are choosing is glaze, artwork, scale and packaging — which is why a programme can start at 200 pieces instead of 2,000.
The economics
Why most private-label launches die in month two.
Two costs kill them, and neither one appears in the quote. The first is tooling: a new silhouette needs a mould, and a mould has to be paid for before a single sellable piece exists. The second is first-run yield — the percentage of an untested form that survives its first firing, which on a genuinely new shape can be brutal and is almost never disclosed up front.
A programme built on an existing, proven form avoids both. The mould exists. The yield is known because we have run it. You are buying a glaze change and a box, and the money goes into the two things a customer can actually see.
That is the whole argument for starting here. Prove the colourway sells at 200 pieces, then pay for tooling on the second run when you have a number to justify it — instead of betting a season on a mood board.
What you can change
Five levers, no new steel.
Glaze & colour
Matte, satin or reactive, matched to a physical reference and approved on a fired tile.
Hand-drawn artwork
Painted under the glaze to your reference, by the same decorators every run.
Scale
Existing forms re-scale roughly ±25% without new tooling — enough to move between gift and centrepiece.
Base mark
Stamped or printed on the unglazed foot. Included, not an extra.
Retail packaging
Your box, barcode, care card and insert, produced alongside the run.
Assortment
Mix shapes and colourways across one carton so a small account can still merchandise a full story.
Straight answers
The questions buyers actually ask.
Including the ones where the answer is inconvenient for us.
What is the real minimum?
200 pieces per colourway on an existing form. Below that the glaze batch itself becomes the constraint — a smaller batch cannot be colour-matched reliably, so we would be selling you a risk rather than a product.
Do I pay for tooling?
Not on an existing form, which covers most requests. A genuinely new silhouette needs a mould: budget $600–$2,400 depending on complexity, amortised or invoiced up front. We tell you which situation you are in during week one, not after you have committed.
How close can you match a colour?
Close, but a fired glaze is not a printed swatch. We match to a physical reference and return a fired tile; you approve on that. Anyone promising an exact Pantone match on a reactive glaze is describing a decal, not a glaze.
Can you put my brand on the base?
Yes — a stamped or printed base mark is included in the programme. Retail boxes, barcodes, care cards and inserts are produced with the run.
What happens if a batch fails inspection?
It is re-fired or re-made, and we tell you the same week. That is the cost of holding the inventory ourselves; it is also why the schedule has slack built into it.
Do you drop-ship to my customers?
For established accounts, yes, from the U.S. warehouse. New programmes start on pallet delivery until we both know the reject rate.