Big 5 Canvas & Tents

Big 5 Canvas makes canvas and PVC products for other brands out of a factory in Fourways: safari tents, truck tarpaulins, bags and awnings, every part cut on a CNC machine to the client’s own pattern. Two things made this harder than it looks.

The first is that it cannot show any of the work. Everything is made under other people’s brands, with the agreements honoured, so there are no client names and no product photos to put on the page. A factory that cannot publish a single thing it has made has to prove itself another way: the categories it works in, the machine it cuts on, and the numbers it will commit to.

The second is that most of the enquiries were the wrong ones. They take products that need repeat production runs, and a steady stream of people wanted one custom item. So the website says so on the home page, and hands that person to the CNC cutting service, which does take once-off jobs.

What’s on it

• A portfolio with no clients in it: what they make, by category, with every agreement honoured
• Two services split cleanly: contract manufacturing for repeat runs, CNC cutting for once-off jobs
• The limits stated on the home page: runs from about ten units, 14 to 21 working days, 1.8 metres cutting width, from R40 a linear metre
• A quote form that asks the three things that decide it: what the product is, how many per run, and how often they reorder
• A shop section ready for their own range of tents and tarpaulins, waiting on the launch
• Written for the words a factory buyer would actually search for