SATO + Partners in the Sanitation Supply Chain

To inspire families to adopt better sanitation and hygiene practices, together with our partners, SATO creates demand for sanitation through marketing, traditional and digital advertising, and door-to-door sales. We do this to ensure our customers understand the benefits of SATO products and know where to buy them.

In addition, we often partner with governments, NGOs, and funders like USAID to build awareness, not only at the household level, but also in institutions such as health care facilities and schools.

Partnership opportunities abound for anyone who desires to join us in creating demand for improved sanitation, including manufacturers, retailers, governments, NGOs, donor-funded projects, marketing agencies, sales agents, and masons.

SATO engages in ongoing market planning, including analyzing what customers are choosing to purchase. With this sales data, we can better understand consumer behaviors and preferences, as well as interpret market trends to help us efficiently meet demand. Our partners play a role by providing sales information, customer feedback, and other relevant data to inform future manufacturing and distribution plans.

To manufacture SATO products, we partner with private sector plastics makers in strategic locations to produce a steady supply of high quality, durable, affordable products that meet our customers’ needs. We operate using a licensing model to produce SATO products in eight countries: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Philippines, Tanzania, Uganda.

In addition to plastics manufacturers, NGOs and donor-funded projects can also be partners at this stage by helping us identify opportunities to establish new manufacturing locations as part of their own market development efforts.

Once SATO products are manufactured, they move from the manufacturing facility to warehouses, where logistics experts maintain inventory and ensure timely delivery to customers.

Alternatively, the products may go directly to wholesalers and retailers, sometimes traveling thousands of miles to other continents. Third party partners such as distributors, freight forwarders, and importers typically perform this function. We also rely on various partners to help us appropriately position products in markets to meet local demand.

NGOs, donor-funded projects, and even governments may also play a role in distribution efforts by identifying new regions that lack access to SATO products, and by working with us to ensure products are distributed properly.

Warehousing and inventory management are crucial elements in the sanitation supply chain. SATO typically partners with private sector logistics and warehousing experts to maintain optimal inventory levels, reduce the risk of stockouts, and ensure timely deliveries to households, institutions, schools, and communities.

Governments, NGOs, and donor-funded projects like USAID’s WASH programs often engage with SATO to assess local needs and to share their planned activities, further helping ensure optimal inventory levels.

To ensure our products are affordable and widely available, SATO works with a variety of partners to establish sales channels and trigger purchases. These include traditional
hardware stores and retailers as well as toilet sales agents and masons who sell our products direct-to-consumer. With these partners, we can conduct joint marketing campaigns, provide support with promotional collateral and point-of-sale materials, and offer the product knowledge our partners need to communicate the benefits about SATO to customers. SATO also partners with NGOs and donor-funded projects to identify and recruit retailers that will serve their project areas.

A key role in the sanitation supply chain is to support customers after they make a purchase. They may have questions about how to install the products. In this case, we refer them to our partners – trained masons – who have acquired this knowledge through SATO, or through the efforts of our NGO partners.

SATO offers training materials and promotional collateral to masons, and also staffs Customer Experience Centers (call centers) in Africa and Asia with free, on-demand after-sales support.

Before and after customers purchase SATO, they may have questions about product functionality, where to purchase, or how to install. We staff toll-free Customer Experience Centers in Africa and India to answer their questions and refer them to their nearest retailers and masons.

To continue serving families and communities, SATO never stops listening to our customers. In addition to customer feedback, we regularly analyze sales and product performance, and we count on partners – including Manufacturers, Distributors, Retailers, NGOs, Donor-funded projects – to share their own customer feedback and data. This ensures we have the latest insights so we can improve current products and innovate new ones to best meet our customers’ preferences.

To continue serving families and communities, SATO conducts regular analysis of sales and product performance. This feedback ensures we have the latest insights into market trends and customer preferences to better plan our supply chain activities. Our partners, including NGOs and donor-funded projects, as well as private sector manufacturing, distribution, retail, and sales, are critical in providing data to help us forecast demand, inform production planning, and guide future market strategies.

Based on this analysis and insight, SATO works to innovate and improve our products to best meet our customers’ needs. We carefully consider things like product affordability, climate-resiliency, and how to meet the needs of women and girls. In this way, SATO remains at the forefront of innovation, working closely with all of our partners to gather feedback and test new ideas. This collaborative approach is the best way to meet the specific needs and preferences of the communities we all serve.

SATO’s ultimate goal is simple – to expand the availability of our sanitation and hygiene products in communities around the globe. With billions of people still in need of affordable, improved sanitation solutions in their homes, schools, and public institutions, we can’t stop until everyone has access to a safe, dignified, and affordable toilet.

It takes ALL types of partners to join us in expanding the market for improved sanitation. Whether you are interested in testing products with customers, creating demand, sharing critical market data, training installers, or producing, selling, or installing SATO products, we hope you see the impact YOU can make in this vital work