Interview Answers

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What company do you work for?

I am working with a hotel amenities and accessories supplies company based in Singapore. The company supplying bath amenities such as shampoo, shower gel and accessories such as dental kits, vanity kits and hotel slippers across the world. Singapore is the Asia Pacific head officer and with HQ in Canada and subsidiaries in Mainland China, Europe and Middle East. The company working with various OEM factory in China for slipper’ production.

Company Name: Hunter Amenities International.

 

How long have you been working at this company?

I been working with this company for 9 years.

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What is your job scope at the company?

I am the Brands, products and Customer Service Manager for Asia Pacific.

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What are the steps/ manufacturing processes that are needed to produce a pair of hotel slippers?

Step 1 - Hotel’ specification requirement, such as design, material and cost.

Step 2 – Sourcing for raw materials & making sample for hotel approval.

Step 3 – Upon confirmation of sample and materials.

a)Cutting of slipper sole, subject to size. In most cased will be using EVA materials.

** Ensure left and right foot portion.

b)Cutting of upper cover material, such as velvet, cotton, non-woven material.

c)Printing, embossing, or sewing the hotel logo on the upper cover portion, subject to hotel spec.

d)Sewing the upper cover.

e)Sewing/combining both upper and sole portion of the materials.

f)QC check before packaging

g)Packaging – put a pair of slippers into client’ chosen material such as plastic bag, non-woven bag or paper bag.

h)To pack slippers into big carton box for export/for delivery. Usually will be 100pairs per carton. The weight of the whole big carton will be restricted to <12-13kg. This is to work safety and staff wellness.

Step 4 – Arrange logistics for export or delivery.

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How long does it take you to produce one? / How many slippers can you produce a day?

In most cases, slippers can be produced within 7 day, subject to quantity and available of raw materials. Each team/department will follow

The main OEM factory we are working with is based in Suzhou, China. This factory can produce 100k pairs per day.

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What are the materials that are most frequently used for hotel slippers? How much of each material is used?

For sole – it will be Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate (EVA) sole. This is rubber like material and with anti-slip cutting. This is soft to wear.

-Cheap sole will be using paper cardboard.

For upper – imitation cut velvet materials (most popular). This is made from knitted fabric from cotton and polyester resampled.

-Non-woven fabric (cheaper). This this cheaper version of slipper with cardboard as sole.

 

Where do you get your material from?

The factory are getting raw material locally in China. Hotel’ accessories materials are widely available in Jiangsu, China.

 

How much do the materials typically cost?

This is subject to market condition. The supply been limited since 3 years ago due to pandemic and the cost been increasing. The current situation are consider stable and the cost are still 30% higher than pre-pandamic period (before year 2019). A tropical cost for standard hotel slipper, 28cm, velvet with 1cm EVA sole will be SG$0.40 (ex-works factory cost, exclude shipping cost, import duties anc etc from China to Singapore)

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What are the main priorities that hotels have in regard to the production of hotel slippers?

Quality and cost.

 

Typically, what is the price range that hotels are willing to pay for their productions?

For hotels in Singapore

4-5 stars – SGD$1.20 – 1.80

3 stars – SGD$0.80 - $0.99

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How many hotel slippers are produced for each hotel on average?

A typical 300 rooms hotel consumption for slippers per month is estimate at 6,000-8,000 pairs per months.

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Have there been cases of hotels wanting to go green with their hotel slippers?

Yes, Hotel are now looking into ‘Go Green’ initiative. Such as exploring to bamboo material slippers and etc. The first step is to eliminate the individual plastic packaging.

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If so, what were the challenges? / What would be the challenges of having more eco-friendly hotel slippers?

Such as eliminate the individual plastic packaging been cause hotel operation issue such as hotel guest feedback on un-hygiene. Without the individual plastic packaging may also cause the slipper easy to get wet during transportation.

Another main factor is the cost of the eco-friendly material. The cost been very high and may double-up hotel’ operation cost and this may lead to increase in hotel’ room rate per night.