A few years ago, a brand approached us with a strong product, solid backing, and an aggressive plan: launch across every town in our network within the first month.
We said no.
It wasn't an easy conversation, because on paper, this looked like a good opportunity — a well-funded brand, ready to invest heavily upfront. But everything about the plan ignored what we know about how trust actually builds in Punjab's retail market. A month is not enough time to introduce a completely unfamiliar product across dozens of towns and expect shopkeepers to genuinely believe in it, not just stock it out of obligation.
We told them honestly: we could take their money and technically deliver what they asked — place the product in every counter within a month. But we didn't believe it would actually sell the way they expected, and we weren't interested in a partnership that looked successful on a delivery report while quietly failing on the shelf.
They found another distributor willing to move faster. Nine months later, through a mutual contact, we heard the launch hadn't gone the way they'd hoped — wide placement, but weak reorders, because shopkeepers never genuinely got behind a product they'd been handed rather than introduced to properly.
I don't share this story to say we were right and someone else was wrong. I share it because it taught us something important about our own business: not every brand is the right fit for how we work, and being honest about that upfront — even when it costs us a partnership — protects both sides from a launch that looks good briefly and fails quietly later.
The brands we've had the longest, strongest relationships with are the ones who were willing to grow at the pace trust actually requires.
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