Shurtape 665

We continue to suffer fallout from the retiring of Permacel as the brand name for 665 gaffers tape. While customers who have agreed to be shipped the Shurtape version of this product seem satisfied, the long range prospects for this product are clearly in doubt. It didn’t have to be this way.

Lots of our large volume purchasers of gaffers tape place their orders on a quarterly or semiannual basis. The ordering is done by a large (and often offsite) purchasing office and their purchasing decision quite often has little to do with the actual needs of the “hands on” users of the product. These folks in purchasing write specifications for a product and once they have approved a specific product and its specs, then this information is embedded in lots of documents and procedures that control what can actually be bought.

Even though we have assured these customers that the products are identical, their procedures and purchasing manuals don’t allow for a quick and simple change from one manufacturer to another. The process of approving a new product may require writing new specs, submitting their purchasing needs out for new bids and getting approval from folks far removed from those who use the tape. This decision making can take a long time and sometimes the results are not what anybody really hoped for.

Because the brand name “Permacel” was so deeply entrenched in the purchasing process of large institutions it can’t simply be replaced with “Shurtape“. Permacel was the dominant brand for gaffers tape for so long that their name had become synonymous with the term “gaffers tape“. Since distributors were given no warning that this change was coming, we did not have a chance to get samples into these buyers hands in time to aid in a smooth transition.

We are hopeful that, over time, these loyal customer can accomodate this change and we can pick up these relationships again. These were good customers and we miss them.

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