Context
The Situation
The client's initial brief was specific: find and appoint a distributor in India capable of selling and supporting their industrial safety-wear range. They had no India presence, no local contacts, and a management team operating entirely from Japan. Every commercial decision, shortlisting, first contact, and capability screening needed to happen on the ground before they committed to direct engagement. Following the distributor appointment, the client extended the engagement, tasking Ewan with identifying OEM manufacturers across India who could produce gloves under their brand.
Constraint
The Challenge
India's safety-wear distribution network is geographically dispersed and difficult to assess from outside the country. Appointing a distributor was only the beginning - without embedding product knowledge and sales approach into the distributor's team, the appointment would sit idle. The OEM phase added a separate layer: evaluating manufacturing capability required in-person factory visits across multiple industrial clusters, not a process that could be run from Tokyo.
Approach
What Ewan Did
- 01
Researched and shortlisted distributor candidates across Pune and Mumbai with existing reach into India's industrial safety segment, then managed first-contact outreach and capability screening on the client's behalf before they entered direct conversations.
- 02
Facilitated the formal appointment of one distributor in Mumbai to carry and support the client's full product range in the Indian market.
- 03
Developed a product positioning and sales guide for the Mumbai distributor - mapping the client's glove range to specific industrial applications and customer segments, and coaching their sales team on pitch approach and client targeting.
- 04
Coordinated eight India visits, managing transportation, scheduling, and ground logistics, and facilitated 16 direct meetings between the client's delegates and the distributor's end customers.
- 05
Evaluated five OEM glove manufacturers across three Indian states once the scope was extended, built a qualified shortlist, and coordinated the client's factory evaluation tour so every site visit was against a vetted target.
- 06
Deployed a dedicated in-house Japanese interpreter with high-context, domain-specific capability across all India-facing work - distributor sales training conducted entirely in Japanese, end-customer meetings, factory visits, and ongoing weekly operational calls - so the client's team could train, evaluate, and close without commercial or technical detail being lost between languages.
Outcome
Results
- 01
One distributor formally appointed in Mumbai - active and operational since 2022.
- 02
Five OEM manufacturers evaluated across three Indian states - the client's team conducted a direct factory-level assessment at each site.
- 03
Sixteen end-customer meetings facilitated across eight India visits - the client's sales methodology was embedded into their Mumbai distributor's team.
- 04
Distributor appointment, OEM evaluation, and sales enablement delivered in 18 months - against the client's internal projection of three years.
Client Testimonial
“We expected this result at the end of three years. Ewan made it happen in one and a half. Their on-ground presence made it possible.”