Our Values

Providing World Class Customer Service

To succeed in the future and new global trade realities, retailers demand five things from their suppliers;

  • Fast and Responsive
  • Internationally Cost Competitive
  • Consistent Innovation
  • Optimise Stock Management
  • Resilient Supply Chains
Fast & Responsive
Cost Competitive
Consistent Innovation
Optimise Stock Management
Resilient Supply Chains

Fast & Responsive

Fast & Responsive

Speed and responsiveness are the first things our customers demand from us to remain competitive. To help our customers succeed, we are focused developing new technologies, optimising processes across the value chain and using our engineering and manufacturing expertise, in combination with strategic investments from our customers, to develop local, efficient, robust and globally competitive manufacturing facilities.

Being responsive is about serving our retail customers to enable them to reduce production lead times, increase speed-to-market, eliminate waste and cost from their supply chain, minimise stock-outs, while creating on-trend products that delight their end-consumers and sell at full margins with reduced stock holding and mark-downs.
Through our unique product development, supply chain management processes and technology, our ability to process new design requests and orders at speed and provide these benefits to our customers are important to transforming the industry.

We are leading the use of technology from 3D product design and machine files, through the replenishment, manufacturing execution and ERP systems to create an agile network that can operate efficiently and deliver innovation and new ways of working to meet our customers’ needs.

We are focused and determined to enable speed and responsiveness in the furniture and homeware supply chain like never before.

Fast & Responsive

Speed and responsiveness are the first things our customers demand from us to remain competitive. To help our customers succeed, we are focus developing new technologies, optimising processes across the value chain and using our engineering and manufacturing expertise, in combination with strategic investments from our customers, to develop local, efficient, robust and globally competitive manufacturing facilities.

Being responsive is about serving our retail customers to enable them to reduce production lead times, increase speed-to-market, eliminate waste and cost from their supply chain, minimise stock-outs, while creating on-trend products that delight their end-consumers and sell at full margins with reduced stock holding and mark-downs.
Through our unique product development, supply chain management processes and technology, our ability to process new design requests and orders at speed and provide these benefits to our customers are important to transforming the industry.

We are leading the use of technology from 3D product design and machine files, through the replenishment, manufacturing execution and ERP systems to create an agile network that can operate efficiently and deliver innovation and new ways of working to meet our customers’ needs.

We are focused and determined to enable speed and responsiveness in the furniture and homeware supply chain like never before.

Internationally Cost Competitive

We realise that all our customers would prefer more robust and resilient supply chains that offer shorter lead times, reduced in-transit stock and investment that can respond rapidly to sales data and know that this can be best achieved through local manufacture.

At the same we time we are fully aware that this cannot be achieved by paying a premium over international prices because increasing selling prices or reducing gross margins puts unnecessary pressure on both the end consumer and the retailer. Neither of these choices is an acceptable or viable outcomes for any retailer to remain competitive.

The problem for most retailers in the furniture industry is that they either work with large, established and efficient manufacturers who cannot innovate rapidly to create new on trend products, or manufacture short-run, small batch orders, or work with smaller manufacturers who have too little management and manufacturing expertise to provide cost competitive products.
In order to meet the need for rapid response, shorter lead-times and on-trend products at internationally competitive prices, Sonu have developed an innovative, tested and patented product architectures that allow us to rapidly develop new styles for our customers and, once approved they can be deployed at scale to smaller, focused and highly efficient, local manufacturing facilities.

In addition, our materials development team constantly works with our suppliers to develop and source environmentally sensitive materials at internationally cost-competitive prices.

This combination of curated material procurement, innovative product architectures and manufacturing systems that can be deployed at scale, enables us to provide our customers with internationally competitive priced product while still be manufactured locally.

Internationally Cost Competitive

We realise that all our customers would prefer more robust and resilient supply chains that offer shorter lead times, reduced in-transit stock and investment that can respond rapidly to sales data and know that this can be best achieved through local manufacture.

At the same we time we are fully aware that this cannot be achieved by paying a premium over international prices because increasing selling prices or reducing gross margins puts unnecessary pressure on both the end consumer and the retailer. Neither of these choices is an acceptable or viable outcomes for any retailer to remain competitive.

The problem for most retailers in the furniture industry is that they either work with large, established and efficient manufacturers who cannot innovate rapidly to create new on trend products, or manufacture short-run, small batch orders, or work with smaller manufacturers who have too little management and manufacturing expertise to provide cost competitive products.
In order to meet the need for rapid response, shorter lead-times and on-trend products at internationally competitive prices, Sonu have developed an innovative, tested and patented product architectures that allow us to rapidly develop new styles for our customers and, once approved they can be deployed at scale to smaller, focused and highly efficient, local manufacturing facilities.

In addition, our materials development team constantly works with our suppliers to develop and source environmentally sensitive materials at internationally cost-competitive prices.

This combination of curated material procurement, innovative product architectures and manufacturing systems that can be deployed at scale, enables us to provide our customers with internationally competitive priced product while still be manufactured locally.

Consistent Innovation

We are focused on consistent innovation throughout the product design, engineering and manufacturing development processes throughout the value chain.

The change in global demographics that’s happening now (the increasing number of younger consumers in their 20’s and 30’s, and the social pressure they are placing on the older generations and companies to operate more ethically and with more consideration for environmental impact of doing business), combined with evolving changes in style and design are driving the need for more rapid innovation in the furniture industry.  Internationally, brands and retailers are being challenged to respond faster to changes in consumer expectations.
Innovation requires looking beyond current habits and knowledge and exploring what is unknown.  Often enormous value can be unlocked and accessed by exploring the unknown, but this requires an openness, humility and transparent communication that is unusual among companies in the supply chain.  Our approach and culture allows us to harness the specialist skills, knowledge and insights of everyone on our team and within our suppliers to innovate with agility and create new value and success for our customers along the way.

At Sonu we crowdsource ideas from our ecosystem and collaborate with our customers to develop new materials, fabrics, components, products and solutions to help our customers meet these ever evolving requirements.

We position ourselves at the core of our network of material suppliers and manufacturing facilities and use our access to data across the supply chain to explore new business models with traditional and non-traditional partners.

Consistent Innovation

We are focused on consistent innovation throughout the product design, engineering and manufacturing development processes throughout the value chain.

The change in global demographics that’s happening now (the increasing number of younger consumers in their 20’s and 30’s, and the social pressure they are placing on the older generations and companies to operate more ethically and with more consideration for environmental impact of doing business), combined with evolving changes in style and design are driving the need for more rapid innovation in the furniture industry.  Internationally, brands and retailers are being challenged to respond faster to changes in consumer expectations.
Innovation requires looking beyond current habits and knowledge and exploring what is unknown.  Often enormous value can be unlocked and accessed by exploring the unknown, but this requires an openness, humility and transparent communication that is unusual among companies in the supply chain.  Our approach and culture allows us to harness the specialist skills, knowledge and insights of everyone on our team and within our suppliers to innovate with agility and create new value and success for our customers along the way.

At Sonu we crowdsource ideas from our ecosystem and collaborate with our customers to develop new materials, fabrics, components, products and solutions to help our customers meet these ever evolving requirements.

We position ourselves at the core of our network of material suppliers and manufacturing facilities and use our access to data across the supply chain to explore new business models with traditional and non-traditional partners.

Optimise Stock Management

With current disruptions in the global supply chain, lead times have been extended  to almost 16 weeks.  This is up to four months of inventory that is stuck in transit but has been paid for. In addition, replenishing stock takes the same time which means that the ability to respond to changes in consumer tastes is difficult and that capital is tied up in warehousing and logistics to manage all this additional stock in the pipeline.

By ensuring that every product we design and manufacture for our customers exists as a 3D model with a fully digital product data file, we can move production to local manufacturing facilities located closest to the final point of delivery.
This allows us to reduce the cost of distribution, and more importantly to reduce the time between when orders are placed and when products are available to be sold at retail.  This speed of delivery allows significant savings for the retailer because they can restock fast selling items and capitalise on successful products more quickly than normal as well as reducing the stock required which frees up working capital that would normally be tied up in long and delayed supply chains.   

Consistent Innovation

We are focused on consistent innovation throughout the product design, engineering and manufacturing development processes throughout the value chain.

The change in global demographics that’s happening now (the increasing number of younger consumers in their 20’s and 30’s, and the social pressure they are placing on the older generations and companies to operate more ethically and with more consideration for environmental impact of doing business), combined with evolving changes in style and design are driving the need for more rapid innovation in the furniture industry.  Internationally, brands and retailers are being challenged to respond faster to changes in consumer expectations.
Innovation requires looking beyond current habits and knowledge and exploring what is unknown.  Often enormous value can be unlocked and accessed by exploring the unknown, but this requires an openness, humility and transparent communication that is unusual among companies in the supply chain.  Our approach and culture allows us to harness the specialist skills, knowledge and insights of everyone on our team and within our suppliers to innovate with agility and create new value and success for our customers along the way.

At Sonu we crowdsource ideas from our ecosystem and collaborate with our customers to develop new materials, fabrics, components, products and solutions to help our customers meet these ever evolving requirements.

We position ourselves at the core of our network of material suppliers and manufacturing facilities and use our access to data across the supply chain to explore new business models with traditional and non-traditional partners.

Resilient Supply Chains

At Sonu, we recognise that our long-term success depends our customers’ continued long-term success and to help our customers succeed our entire team focuses on three key initiatives;
By ensuring that every product we design and manufacture for our customers exists as a 3D model with a fully digital product data file, we can move production to local manufacturing facilities located closest to the final point of delivery.
  • Spreading manufacturing capability and capacity across multiple, smaller and focused facilities
  • Geographically locating manufacturing capabilities closer to end consumers to speed up delivery, reduce the climate impact of shipping and cut costs for our customers
  • Developing and operating sustainable and agile supply chains
Our focus is to build and operate sustainable, agile and responsible supply chains that meet the needs of the global furniture retail industry while safeguarding and enhancing the lives of all along the way.  

We work with all our customers, suppliers, industry partners and technology specialists to find materials, processes, and technology to convert waste materials, or new sources of sustainable materials that we can use to manufacture the components and final products that meet the needs of the consumer and our retail partners. We are constantly developing processes for managing and mitigating risk and improving performance in the supply chain while adopting the standards and best practices required to provide new design and sustainable manufacturing, packaging and shipping options.

The key elements of our manufacturing development and management services are outlined below.
The key elements of our manufacturing development and management services are outlined below.

Let’s grow together.

Creating value while building a sustainable supply chain of the future.

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5 Jim Fouche Avenue,
Plattekloof, Cape Town, 7530info@sonu.co.za060 392 6775

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