By Martijn Jansen, CCO, Rompa Group

I recently travelled to our facility in the Czech Republic to spend some time with senior management from a customer we originally started working with in Mexico. The first cooperation was relatively small: a local project with a clear scope around manufacturing and assembly of a finished product.

Now the conversation is different.

Their leadership team came to discuss developing our cooperation in Europe. At the same time, we are exploring a first opportunity together in China.

This is something I see more and more often across our international customer base.

Relationships that start with one product, in one region, are gradually expanding. Not because this was the plan from the beginning, but because the cooperation works in practice.

When products involve multiple components, suppliers, and assembly steps, fragmentation quickly creates pressure.

Different suppliers across regions means more coordination, more interfaces, and more room for misalignment. This is manageable at a small scale, but it becomes harder as volumes grow or as products evolve.

What we are seeing is that many companies are building on partnerships that are already proven, instead of adding new ones in each region.

The reasons for this are not always the same.

In some cases, companies want to reduce exposure to geopolitical uncertainty by spreading production across regions. In other situations, production is moved closer to where products are sold. And in many cases, it is simply a result of growth — volumes increase, and the supply chain needs to scale with it.

The common factor is not consolidation as an objective. It is a preference for working with partners that are already understood, instead of introducing new complexity.

Global manufacturing partnerships rarely start at a global level. They usually begin with a single product, a defined scope, and a team working through the practical challenges of production, quality and delivery.

That phase is important. It is where both sides learn how to work together. Only after that do we get to the next question: can this cooperation be extended?

That is not only a question of capacity. It is about consistency. Can the same standards, processes and communication be maintained across different locations?

When that is in place, expanding into additional regions becomes a logical step rather than a risky transition.

We are seeing this pattern across different industries and types of products. Here are just some of the examples:

• A global manufacturer of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Production started in Mexico, where we manage moulding, quality assurance, assembly and packaging of the customer’s consumer-facing products. As supply chain resilience became more important, the customer has decided to expand production of the same products into China. This allows them to diversify geographically without introducing a new manufacturing partner.
• Essity, a leading producer of health and hygiene products: We’ve been working with Essity for some time, producing napkin dispensers in Mexico for the US and Latin American markets. We do moulding, assembly, decoration and packaging. That cooperation is now expanding into Europe, where we are preparing production of new product ranges closer to the end-market, while maintaining the same production approach and standards.
• Johnson Controls (JCI). After an established cooperation in Europe to produce JCI smoke detector covers —and recognition as a platinum JCI supplier — we are now preparing to add production in Mexico. This includes both existing and new product variants, supporting regional alignment while building on an already proven setup.
• Bosch. We have a long-standing partnership with Bosch, producing components such as brush holders used in automotive applications. As some vehicle manufacturers shift production towards China in response to geopolitical developments, we are supporting Bosch in transferring selected programs from Mexico to our facility in China. This aligns production more closely with end markets and helps them to reduce transport-related costs and environmental impact, while maintaining continuity in processes, quality standards, and a long-standing culture of collaboration.

These customer examples are all different in detail, but similar in structure. In each case, the next step is not taken from zero. It builds on an existing relationship where processes, expectations and ways of working are already clear.

That reduces the effort required to expand, and it lowers the risk compared to starting again with a new supplier in a new region.

Global supply chains are often presented as something that can be designed upfront. In practice, they are built step by step.

Looking Ahead

For companies reviewing their supply base today, it’s important to think about where production should take place, obviously. But just as important is how relationships can be structured so they can evolve over time — across regions, products and volumes — without adding unnecessary complexity.

If you are currently looking at how your supply chain is set up across regions, it is worth considering which partnerships can realistically grow with you, and which ones will remain limited to a single scope.

We are always open to exchanging perspectives on what works in practice.