What does "private label" mean here — and how is it different from ODM?

Private label means the product carries your brand: your logo, your artwork, your colours, your carton. Underneath, it can be an existing platform we already build (closest to private label in the classical sense) or a machine we develop for you (ODM). Most first projects are the first kind; most second projects, once the volumes are known, are the second.

How much can we actually change?

Three levels, and the cost difference between them is large. One: colourway, logo and packaging — same platform, fastest and cheapest. Two: a new housing on an existing mechanism — new tooling for the shell, proven guts inside. Three: a new platform, where structure is designed first and the form is built to fit it. We will tell you which level your idea actually needs rather than sell you the most expensive one.

What determines the MOQ?

Two things: which model you pick, and how much of it is new. Ordering an existing platform in your own colours has one minimum; a brand-new moulded housing has another, because the tooling has to be paid for across the run. Tell us the target volume and the market and we will answer with the number, not a range.

Who owns the tooling and the design?

We write it down in the quotation rather than leaving it to convention — who owns the mould, who owns the housing design, and what happens if you move production. Ask for that section explicitly and read it. A supplier who will not put it in writing is telling you something.

Can you do the packaging as well?

Yes. Cartons and retail gift boxes are part of what we produce — we made the gift box for the SM series, so the diecut, the print and the pallet configuration are all things we have done before. Send your artwork, or bring the idea and we will work to it.

Private Label Soda Maker: What the Project Really Involves

Private label, OEM, ODM — the words overlap

In practice buyers use them loosely, so here is how we use them. Private label: the product carries your brand. OEM: we manufacture to your specification. ODM: we design it, you brand it. The distinction that matters commercially is not the acronym — it is how much of this machine is new.

The three levels of "new"

Almost every project lands in one of these, and the cost, the tooling and the timeline are different in each. Getting this wrong at the start is the most expensive mistake in the whole process.

Level	What changes	What it costs you
1 · Branding	Colourway, logo, artwork, carton, gift box	Lowest tooling, shortest lead time, lowest MOQ
2 · New housing	A new moulded shell on a mechanism that is already proven	Housing tooling, and a run long enough to carry it
3 · New platform	Structure, mechanism and form designed together	Full development: drawings, prototypes, tooling, pilot, certification

We will tell you which level your idea actually needs. If level 1 sells the same number of units as level 2, level 1 is the better business — and it is usually our advice.

How the machine gets made

The order matters, and it is why we start with structure rather than with a sketch of the outside.

Structure first — how the gas path, the bottle and the release actually work.
Form adapts to the structure — the housing is built to fit what is inside, not the other way round.
Drawings — what the tooling will be cut from.
Prototype — held in the hand, put under pressure, argued about.
Tooling, pilot run, volume — and then sub-assembly → final assembly → shipping, still under our own roof.

Two things are 100% tested on the line, not sampled: the gas and release components during sub-assembly, and the complete machine during final assembly. Every bottle production run also gets a 2 MPa destructive burst test, which is how we can state that the bottles hold 1.8 MPa without bursting.

What you get beyond the machine

Your own bottle tooling — we blow-mould food-grade PET in-house (300 m² dust-free workshop, 3,200 bottles a day), so the bottle can be yours rather than a catalogue item.
Packaging — carton and retail gift box. We produced the gift box for the SM series; the diecut and pallet configuration are things we have done.
The documents your market will ask for — ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 (issued 2025-08-12, valid to 2028-08-05, scope: R&D and assembly of soda makers), BSCI social audit, LFGB, RoHS, REACH, PPWR packaging, PET GB 4806.6, CO₂ CoS and MSDS, TPED and DOT for cylinders, and FCCA — the Walmart factory capability audit. Scans of the originals are on the Why 4° page, and there is a guide on what importers ask for.
The patents behind it — 60 granted across 4° and MIA, 56 in force, covering the air-charge system, two-phase release, hanging-bottle lock and the mix-and-carbonate line. The list is a free download on the patents page.

What we are not

We are not a trading office that takes your drawings and finds a factory. Design, tooling, injection, blow moulding, assembly, inspection and packing are all ours, in a 5,000 m² plant in Foshan, and the companies behind that have been at it since 2013. That is the whole reason a private-label conversation is worth having with us rather than with a broker: when something has to change, we are the people who change it.

What to bring to the first call

Where you sell — country, channel, and whether it is retail or commercial use.
What you want to carbonate — still water only, or juice, tea and syrup too.
Your volume expectation for the first twelve months, even if it is rough.
How much is new — is this branding, a housing, or a whole new platform?
Your artwork and packaging idea, if you have it.

With those five, we can answer on the first call with a model, a level and a number — rather than sending a catalogue and waiting.

Where this sits in the range

Underneath the branding, most of what we build is a counter-top water dispenser — a standard appliance your buyers already stock — with carbonation as the plus-one. That is deliberate: it means your private-label product competes on a shelf that already exists, instead of asking a buyer to create one.

Read next: OEM & ODM — what a custom project involves on our side.
Read next: from a drawing to a delivered unit — the four stages, illustrated with our own patent drawings.
Read next: client cases — development work we are allowed to talk about.

Private Label Soda Maker: What the Project Really Involves | 4°