A creative business built on ‘the human factor’: New member ORB X

ORB X is a business which partners with brands to build tailored retail initiatives aimed at extending the lifetime value of customers by implementing new areas of income. We work across various industries including automotive, technology and sports to help brands who wish to deliver an eCommerce operation but lack the expertise to do so. ORB X removes the operational cost and pain of delivering a fully outsourced model built on our THINK | MAKE | SELL | MANAGE methodology.

The ‘X’ in ORB X represents ‘the unknown’. This is due to the fact we have found ourselves creating a new marketplace based on identifying commerce opportunities for businesses where they are not immediately clear. Using decades of marketing and technology experience combined with strategic sourcing and compliance ability, we believe we have created an unrivalled offering.

As Co-Founder and Managing Director, I have focused on building a team of eclectic talents who would not traditionally be found working together to create an entirely new marketplace for brands who are struggling to deliver effective eCommerce operations or where they are simply unaware of the opportunity. Surprisingly, it is often not just a profit result that our clients seek, it can be retention, engagement or advocacy and it is there that we are able to help them find their X.

The creation of new opportunities often sees us manufacturing and sourcing from China, India and Vietnam. These locations can expose us and our clients to heighten risks of poor working conditions and pay, as well as child labour and or forced labour.

Our business is built on what we call ‘the human factor’. We care about how our staff are treated and that goes beyond the walls of our office. It is important to all of us that we are aware of the knock-on effects of our trading, which is why we ensure all our staff are focused on doing things right and I realise it is my job to give them the right tools to do so.

We have joined ETI because we wish to use the ETI base code as the foundation of all supplier transactions. We have created an internal training process where the base code is used to instruct our buying team to follow procedures that reduce risk and encourage ethical behaviour. We have even built an internal workflow system that allows us to measure the key milestones in production against the base code. For us, being members of ETI goes much further than simply ‘following the rules’, we believe we have a responsibility to deliver continuous improvements that can be shared with our clients and other ETI members. We do that by engaging with ETI’s tripartite membership to learn about new ways of driving those improvements.

ORB X is a business that thrives on creating positive tensions, where design and sourcing work together to ensure the very best quality products are sourced; we are experts in sourcing and product manufacture, and we often find ourselves working in distant markets, as well as through local suppliers who may also have distant supply chains. To ensure we are reducing risk to our clients, our in-house compliance team has built a CSR and quality control methodology which is built on the principles outlined in ETI’s base code. Utilising our SEDEX membership, we can also monitor our supply chain through independent auditing and inspection protocols ensuring that we are able to highlight, improve or reject suppliers as a result.

ORB X has recently been assigned to deliver a major project for one of the largest government Olympic level sports associations, this project will see the business grow beyond £5 million turnover in just three years of trading. Our business’s ongoing commitment to creativity, technology and production is underscored by our focus on ethical trading, if we do not deliver the former then we are failing our clients commercially, if we fail on the latter, we are failing to protect the people creating our products, and at that point we have all lost.

To find out more about ORB X or just chat, email the team at hello@weareorbx.com or visit www.weareorbx.com