/biz/ - Business & Finance

ill give an updoot to you OP

>>7077451
>/biz/ existed in 2012


nice one

Actual business legal question here.

For the past six months, I've been re-selling a consumable product, purchased from the official retailer at bulk rate. However, I've managed to reverse engineer the product formula as well as locate their packaging supplier. If I manufacture myself, I'd save 80% off my per unit cost.

The official brand has a niche but loyal and discerning following. Most customers desire this product, but can rarely justify the retail price. I already sell the official product at a 10%-20% discount (I have the cheapest price anywhere online, actually), but many customers still complain my price is unreasonable.

Manufacturing in-house would allow me to undercut the retail pricing by 50%, while increasing my per unit profit by 30%+. I would like to think more affordable pricing would also increase sales volume, but this customer base seems very picky. I worry that an unbranded, generic version (or a new alternative brand) would be met with skepticism. As I said, everything is identical to the original manufacturer (ingredients, formula, packaging) except branded labeling.

TLDR; How can I piggyback off a known brand's reputation when selling an identical alternative/generic? Also, as previously mentioned, it's a relatively small but established brand(~10 employees, <$1mil revenue). Easily has 90%+ marketshare for it's type of niche products. How likely would I get my ass sued if I were to have labels printed identical to the official brand?