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While doing some research into top end homeware products for Brabantia, I happened upon a Wikipedia entry on Sabatier knives. This was after looking at a fairly dire website on said kitchen utensils. On Wikipedia I found, to my surprise (apologies to those already in the know) that Sabatier is not a registered brand name. Rather, it’s “considered to imply a high-quality knife produced by one of a number of manufacturers in the Thiers region of France using a fully forged process”.

So no quality assurance there – note the use of the word ‘considered’. Yet it’s still recognised by many (myself included) as one of the best knife brands you can get. Wikipedia goes on to state that “knives legally bearing the name range from high-quality knives made in France to cheap mass-produced products of poor quality from France and other countries”. Why I oughtta!

Y’know. I kind of like the way the French celebrate regional business. Apparently Thiers has been associated with the cutlery industry since the Middle Ages. And the region of Champagne has, well, pretty much the monopoly on a certain sparkling beverage. OK, so quality isn’t consistent across each bottle of bubbly, but for many, the real talking point is the brand and its associations.

It got me wondering whether there could be benefits in clusters of producers joining forces to create and communicate high quality brands (ideally subject to stringent quality guidelines). Co-operatives are aimed towards co-branding but from my experience (and please correct me if I’m wrong), they often don’t communicate that air of exclusivity.

Strangely enough, I was discussing this with Lou Campbell, Queen Bee at MyEhive – the online e-commerce site for handmade crafts. They have a cool project in the pipeline called Craft Nations that aims to do just that. Still in beta, the aim is to create a collective of luxury crafts suppliers that can be located using the mapping feature. This will be supported by a social network of smaller craftspeople who can register details on the site for free and find out about local craft fairs or network online.

As well as showcasing creative talent, the site plans to encourage people to invest in their local communities.

“Think Liberty co-operative.” says Lou. She worked at Liberty’s jewellery dept and has an eye for design as well as technical nous.

“We’re still at early stages but lots are already putting themselves on the map. FARMA have agreed to provide data on all of their farms offering crafts. The next stage is to get to London Fashion Week and start bringing onboard suppliers so we can start building the brand.”

It will be interesting to see how Craft Nations unfolds. Relationships are hugely important in business, and, with the growth of online networking and flexible working, it is increasingly likely that businesses will shapeshift into branded strategic alliances & project teams to meet different customer needs.

I’m all for increasing the power of smaller suppliers. But it’s a PR disaster waiting to happen if it becomes all about branding, rather than making sure suppliers comply to quality guidelines. And don’t get me started on Pierre Cardin….