Who Cares?

We do! We think you should too.

How long a supplier has been making bell tents is massively important. Bell tent manufacturers come and go. You need one that stays!

Large retailers spot consumer buying trends and try to muscle in. Small retailers ‘have a go’ at stocking and selling. Both have this in common – lack of experience and lack of staying power.

More recently, even supermarkets are having a go! Consumers are tempted by the very low prices, with some being prepared to compromise heavily on quality over price. If it’s cheap and seems too good to be true, then it probably is.

The Manufacturer

All bell tent retailers/manufacturers will choose to present themselves and their product in a certain positive light on-line through their websites and various other platforms. You’ll get a good feel for each supplier by comparing their on-line presence. 

However, there is a lot more to manufacturing bell tents than is presented on-line. All of which have an affect on the quality and longevity of your tent. Here follows a deeper question to ask your supplier, the reason why this question is important, what to make of their response and follow up questions to ask.

Q: How Long Have You Been Manufacturing Bell Tents?

Why This Question is So Important

New manufacturers frequently come and go. We would often pick up their disappointed customers when they were let down by failure to supply, or when the tents failed. We would fill the gap and supply these customers with spare parts and after sales care advice when their original supplier had disappeared. 

Most bell tents sold in Europe are produced in China. As a result manufacturers based in Europe are faced with incredibly long lead times. Pre pandemic the typical lead time would be around five months from placing the order on the factory to receiving the goods in a UK warehouse. Post pandemic the lead time has increased and is not so predictable. This is due to unprecedented pressures on supply chains and worldwide shipping costs and availability.

Long established manufacturers will have contingency in place to minimise the impact of these external pressures on you. They will plan further ahead than the average pile-it-high-and-sell-it-fast retailer. They’ll have good stock levels, and a clearly defined stock delivery schedule in place for the whole year.

The Response

As a general rule of thumb, trading for five years or more would identify a manufacturer who has found their feet and has enough experience under their belt both in terms of the product, and in running their own business effectively.

There are a few ways you can double-check their response.

• Use a ‘whois’ lookup such as Freeola to establish when their website was first registered.
• Visit the Companies House website to check when the company was first incorporated and how frequently it has changed hands (if at all).
• Check their socials. Most social platforms will reveal when a company first joined.
• Ask for feedback in on-line forums and social groups. For example, a manufacturer name search in a large, bell tent specific Facebook group will return invaluable results by date.

The Follow Up

A decent follow up question might be to ask the manufacturer what the returns rate is on their bell tents, specifically the model you are considering and the nature of those returns. A good manufacturer will be monitoring this closely and will be happy to share this information with you. If they are reluctant to share actual unit numbers, ask for percentages instead.

If they’ve been in the business long enough, the manufacturer will be proud to tell you so.

Consider also these further questions you might like to ask your supplier.