Robes and Towels on One PO: How a Combined Order Saves Freight

Short answer: every shipment carries fixed costs: export documents, origin certificate, customs clearance at your end, and a minimum freight charge. Order robes separately from towels and you pay them twice. Order together and each piece carries less.

The fixed costs you pay per shipment

A worked example

Say clearing and delivery at your end come to $400 per shipment. Use your own broker's figure.

• Two shipments: 300 robes in one, 2,000 towels in the other. You pay $800. The robe shipment carries $1.33 per robe in fixed cost.
• One shipment: 2,300 pieces together. You pay $400, or about $0.17 per piece.

On the robes alone, that is more than a dollar a piece saved before you count freight.

The other gains

• One white. Robes, towels and bath mats made in the same period can be matched to one white reference. Bought months apart from different suppliers, whites never quite agree.
• One inspection. One visit covers everything, and you see one report.
• One delivery date. A pre-opening hotel gets the whole bathroom at once.
• A fuller container. Robes are bulky and light. Towels are dense. Loaded together they use the space better than either alone. Try it in the container loading calculator.

When to split anyway

• The robes carry embroidery that is not yet approved, and the towels are needed now.
• You have storage for one delivery but not both.
• One product is a trial and you want to see it before committing to the rest.

How to set it up

Put each product on its own line with its own spec, and ask for one proforma invoice covering all lines. Trial towel runs start at 500 pieces and white robes at 50 pieces per size, so a small hotel can still fill out one order. Production takes 30 to 45 days, and everything leaves from Cochin together.

For timing, see what happens in the 60 days after you approve a sample. To price a combined order, send us one list.