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Origin set off to visit our suppliers and partners in mid-November 2024. Origin works with suppliers worldwide; the Chinese manufacturing base is spread nationwide, allowing us to work with the greatest experts in each sector. The trip covered 3,405 miles within China, taking the team all across the country's eastern seaboard and beyond.
Guangzhou, China's fifth largest city, was the first destination on the roadmap. In Guangzhou, we met with our flooring factory for a guided tour. Origin rubber flooring is manufactured with responsibly sourced raw materials and an independently audited supply chain to ensure that the recycled material stocks are sourced from reputable suppliers.
This also allows Origin to confidently offer you an environmentally friendly flooring product, giving pre-used rubber a second life in your gym. Xiamen was the next stop, seeing multiple factories in the city.
Xiamen and the greater Fujian Province area have a long history of manufacturing technology, technology-related devices, and traditional engineering. This makes the city a perfect hub for fitness equipment manufacturing, as the area has experience in manufacturing and assembling all the required subassemblies.
Xiamen produces some of the best HIIT, Cardio, and free weights in the world, and Origin utilises this diverse supply chain to offer our customers the best possible products.
During the weekend, the team visited Xi'an for a tour of the Terracotta Army. Situated near the mausoleum of the first emperor of modern China - Qin Shi Huang - the area is of special importance in historical Chinese culture. It is definitely worth visiting if you are in China!
The following week, the team visited Qingdao in the northern Shandong Province. Qingdao is one of the major industrial centres in China, and it has a heavy presence in the Chinese export market due to the city's large port. Qingdao has a history in textiles (as well as the historical Tsingtao brewery!) before recently pivoting to heavy industry and technology.
Qingdao's diverse manufacturing portfolio makes it an ideal location for fitness equipment and accessory manufacture, as everything can be made within one city, a capability Origin leverages for our customers.
Qingdao is also the home of our partner Impulse, and a day was spent with their team, which was capped by a tour of the new Impulse factory. The new facility will be state of the art, costing approximately $200m to construct and leveraging fully automated production, welding, powder coating and storage facilities.
Impulse is already one of the world's leading cardio and strength manufacturers, but the new facility will cement its position as one of the premiere fitness manufacturers and brands.
With this done, it was back to Guangzhou and then to London. Origin has a robust supply chain in China between our own factories and our partners, such as Impulse; the range we can offer is market-leading. I have no doubts that Origin has the best supply chain of any UK fitness company, and the products we can offer are market-leading in all sectors.
