Tie suppliers are a unique breed of people who supply ties in one form or another.

They could be manufacturers or simply marketers. This is not to say that one needs to be a tie manufacturer to be a tie supplier and vice versa.

Many tie manufacturers do not want to be tie suppliers simply because they would rather not be doing the marketing or selling or have any kind of contact with what we call the end user, they prefer to be in the factory the whole day, making the item as opposed to selling it.

There are always people to sell or be suppliers, but there are never enough people to be tie manufacturers, they are quite a special and unique brand of people who live for the production and not the sales.

However, when we talk about tie suppliers, it is also important to note that a person who sells school ties or corporate ties for example is not necessarily a tie supplier.

The reason I mention this is because tie suppliers need to know a lot about their product and it is more likely that a selling or marketing person in the chain would be directly reliant on the tie supplier to make sure they end up with the correct product.

So as I said, a tie supplier needs to understand everything about their industry, they may not or may well be tie manufacturers as well, but they need to know as much if not more about the tie business than the actual person making the ties.

Production people don’t want to be bothered with the nitty gritty of the client's requirements, they want to be given an order explaining exactly what is required once the tie supplier has determined all of these aspects, whether through another salesperson or directly with the end user.

Tie suppliers often have their own labels whereas many tie manufacturers do not have their own labels because they operate on a cut make and trim basis for those individuals or companies who own their own label or labels.

Tie suppliers have a direct line of communication in most cases with either the middleman servicing the end user or the end user themselves.

Tie suppliers as opposed to tie manufacturers are generally good marketers, they are good with sales, they are really good with customer service and ensuring complete satisfaction whereas the tie manufacturers are not always focussed on these aspects because they are so often under huge pressure to deliver and they have many people to satisfy within their circle of manufacture.

Tie suppliers are not necessarily a special breed, it's just that they have to know their business and they have to know what to tell the tie manufacturers otherwise it all goes wrong and the wrong item gets delivered.

There are, for example, many different sizes of ties from junior primary all the way up to matriculants when it comes to school tie manufacturers and they have to ensure that the length and width are always correct.

The tie industry is not the easiest industry, ask anyone who has been in it for any amount of time and they will tell you that as fun as it can be, it can also be pressurised.