Welcome to ServLifts Official Website
What this page covers:
- Why We Build One Private Label Dumbwaiter Under Your Name
- What Changes When a Private Label Dumbwaiter Carries Your Brand
- The Paperwork That Makes a Private Label Dumbwaiter Legally Yours
- One Unit, One Week: How the Private Label Dumbwaiter Minimum Works
- How a Private Label Dumbwaiter Order Runs, Enquiry to Container
- What a Private Label Dumbwaiter Costs, and What It Does Not
- When a Private Label Dumbwaiter Is the Wrong Answer
- What We Do Not Do on a Private Label Dumbwaiter
- Private Label Dumbwaiter: Questions Dealers Ask
- Who We Already Supply, and How to Start
Why We Build One Private Label Dumbwaiter Under Your Name
Most factories ask for five or ten units before they will print your name on the machine. We ask for one.
Not because a single private label dumbwaiter is profitable. It is not. The first unit costs more to set up than it returns in margin: nameplate artwork, carton print, a rewritten manual, a control cabinet label, and a second review of the general arrangement drawing before anything is cut. That work is paid once and spread across whatever comes after.
We absorb it because the arithmetic changes from the second unit onwards. A private label buyer is not a project, it is a market. They have customers, a service route and a reason to order again, and the unit they sell carries their name rather than ours. Four units a year for five years is worth more than twenty one-off buyers who never come back. It is closer to adding a salesperson in that territory than to filling an order.
That is the entire commercial logic behind a one-unit minimum, and it is worth being blunt about the other side of it. If you are buying one machine for your own building, a standard ServLifts dumbwaiter will be cheaper and faster, and the branded version buys you nothing. If you intend to sell under your own name, the first unit is a setup cost for both of us, and we treat it that way in the quotation.
What Changes When a Private Label Dumbwaiter Carries Your Brand
A private label dumbwaiter is the same machine with an ownership layer on top of it. The traction machine, the car, the guide rails, the buffers and the safety gear do not change. What changes is everything a buyer, an installer or an inspector will look at.
Different buyers use different words for the same arrangement: OEM supply, white label production, or a custom-logo build. The machine underneath is identical in all three cases, and so is the pricing logic below. Only the marks change.
That distinction matters because it sets the price. You are not paying for a different lift, you are paying for a different set of marks on the same lift. The table below separates the two.
| Item | Standard unit | Private label dumbwaiter unit | Who produces the artwork |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nameplate | ServLifts, model, serial | Your brand, your model code, our serial | We print |
| Carton and crate marking | ServLifts | Your brand, model, handling marks | We print |
| Manual | ServLifts, English | Your brand, your language | We rewrite |
| Control cabinet label | ServLifts | Your brand | We print |
| General arrangement drawing | ServLifts title block | Your title block | We redraw |
| Certificate of conformity | Issued in our name | Authorised for you to use | We issue |
| Technical file | Branded set | Unbranded set, or branded to you | We provide |
The four print items are the easy half. Artwork in, proof out, and the first article is checked against the proof before the run continues. Most of the one-week difference on a private label dumbwaiter order sits here, because a nameplate that arrives after the car is assembled means a second trip to the paint shop.
The Nameplate, and What Has to Stay on It
Four items cannot come off a nameplate, whatever brand sits at the top of it: the rated load, the number of stops or the travel, the manufacturing year, and a serial number that can be traced back to a production record.
The serial matters more than it looks. It is what lets us answer a spare parts question in year four without asking you to photograph the machine. Keep it in your own records alongside the installation address, because the two together are the whole warranty conversation.
Everything above those four lines is yours. Brand, model code, distributor line, your own format. If you already have a nameplate template from another supplier, send it and we will match the layout rather than invent a new one.
The Paperwork That Makes a Private Label Dumbwaiter Legally Yours
On a private label dumbwaiter the machine is yours and the compliance evidence is still ours. That gap is normal in every industry that supplies under other people’s names, and it is closed with two documents rather than one.
The first is a certificate authorisation, which lets you use our certificate for the units we build for you. The second is an unbranded technical file, which is what your own customer, your installer or your market regulator will actually read. Neither replaces the other, and a supplier who offers only the first has not thought the problem through.
| Document | Branded version | Unbranded version | When it is issued | Transferable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CE certificate | ServLifts name | Not applicable | With the order | Authorised use only |
| Certificate authorisation letter | Issued to your company | – | Before shipment | No |
| EU declaration of conformity | Our name and address | Your name as importer | Before shipment | Yes, as importer |
| GA drawing | Our title block | Your title block | Before production | Yes |
| Electrical schematic | Our name | No branding | Before production | Yes |
| Load and strength calculation | Our name | No branding | On request | Yes |
| Installation and maintenance manual | Our name | Your brand, your language | Before shipment | Yes |
| Spare parts list with part numbers | Our name | No branding | Before shipment | Yes |
What the Certificate Authorisation Covers, and What It Does Not
Authorisation means you may state that the units supplied to you are covered by our certificate, and you may show that certificate to your customer or your authority. It does not mean the certificate is yours, and it does not survive a change of supplier.
Three limits are worth stating before you sign anything. The authorisation is tied to the models and the serial range we build for you. It is not transferable, so it cannot be passed to a subcontractor or a second brand. And it does not make you the manufacturer of record, which matters if your market places the legal duty on the manufacturer rather than the importer.
The rules behind that distinction sit in the EU CE marking framework, which separates the obligations of the manufacturer from those of the importer. Machinery duties are set out separately in the EU machinery rules, and the UK treats the same question under its own CE and UKCA marking guidance. If your market is one of those, decide early whether you are acting as importer or as manufacturer, because it changes what has to be printed on the machine.
The Unbranded Technical File Set
The unbranded set is eight documents, listed in the table above. In practice four of them do the work: the general arrangement drawing, the electrical schematic, the load and strength calculation, and the spare parts list.
We hold an unbranded version of all four as a matter of routine, because most of our trade buyers ask for them at some point and rewriting them per order would be wasteful. If you want them branded to you instead, that is a redraw rather than a rewrite, and it adds a few days.
One practical warning. The technical file is not the same thing as the marketing pack. A drawing set that has been reduced for a website is useless to an installer, and an installer who receives it will improvise. Ask for the full set at order stage and check that the dimensions on it match the shaft, not the car.
One Unit, One Week: How the Private Label Dumbwaiter Minimum Works
A private label dumbwaiter takes about one week longer than the same unit in standard finish. That week is not padding, and it is worth knowing exactly where it goes, because it is the first question a dealer asks.
Roughly two days go to artwork: nameplate, carton, cabinet label, and a proof that you approve in writing. Two more go to the manual, which is a rewrite rather than a relabel if your language is not English. The rest is the second drawing review and a first-article check before the run continues.
None of that touches the machine itself, which is why the difference is a week and not a month. It also means the clock only starts once your artwork is approved. A private label dumbwaiter order that waits three weeks for a logo file takes three weeks longer than the quotation said, and that delay is on the buyer’s side of the table.
If you are comparing suppliers, ask each one what their quoted lead time is measured from. Some quote from deposit, some from drawing approval, some from artwork approval. The numbers look comparable and they are not.
How a Private Label Dumbwaiter Order Runs, Enquiry to Container
A private label dumbwaiter order runs in six stages. The first three are where a project is won or lost, because a shaft dimension confirmed late costs more than any price difference between suppliers.
| Stage | Working days | What happens | Who drives it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Enquiry and sizing | 1-3 | Shaft dimensions, load, stops, voltage, market | You |
| 2. GA drawing and quotation | 3-5 | Drawing issued for comment, price confirmed | Us |
| 3. Artwork and manual | 3-5 | Nameplate, carton, label, manual language | You approve, we produce |
| 4. Production | 15-25 | Fabrication, assembly, wiring, testing | Us |
| 5. First article and inspection | 1-2 | Photo and video check against the approved proof | Us |
| 6. Crating and shipment | 3-5 | Export crate, documents, booking | Us |
Stage three is the one that slips. It sits between two things you control and one thing we control, and it has no buffer, so a late logo file moves everything behind it. Send the artwork with the enquiry if you already have it.
What We Need From You in the First Message
Six items get a quotation out the same day: clear shaft width and depth, pit depth, headroom above the top floor, number of stops, rated load, and the supply voltage and frequency at the site. A photograph taken from the bottom landing looking up answers two of them faster than a drawing does.
Add three things if you want the private label dumbwaiter quoted at the same time: your brand name as it should appear on the nameplate, the manual language, and whether you want the technical file branded or unbranded. Without those three we can only quote the machine.
What a Private Label Dumbwaiter Costs, and What It Does Not
A private label dumbwaiter does not add a percentage to the machine price. It adds cost in three specific places, and two of them are one-off.
| Cost item | Changes with private label | One-off or per unit | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Machine and drive | No | – | Same specification, same price |
| Nameplate and cabinet label | Yes, small | One-off setup, tiny per unit | Print work |
| Carton and crate marking | Yes, small | Per unit | Print plate charged once |
| Manual rewrite | Yes | One-off, per language | Free if English and unbranded |
| GA drawing and schematic redraw | Yes | One-off | Waived on repeat orders |
| Certificate authorisation | No | One-off paperwork | No charge |
| Unbranded technical file | No | Included | Standard set |
The line that surprises buyers is the manual. A relabel is a sticker, a rewrite is a translation and a layout, and a translation done badly reads like a translation and undermines the brand it carries. If your market is not English-speaking, budget for that properly rather than accepting a machine-translated manual.
What a private label dumbwaiter does not change is the machine price, the packing standard or the shipping cost. A dealer who is quoted a premium on the hardware itself is being charged for the setup work in the wrong place, which makes repeat orders look more expensive than they are.
When a Private Label Dumbwaiter Is the Wrong Answer
Four buyer profiles do better with a standard unit. Saying so costs us orders, and it saves both sides a project that would have ended badly.
| Buyer | Private label makes sense? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| End user fitting one unit in their own building | No | You pay setup for a brand nobody will read |
| Dealer or distributor with repeat volume | Yes | The setup is amortised from unit two onwards |
| Engineering or installation contractor | Yes | Your name on the machine supports the service contract |
| Regional brand assembling a product range | Yes | Consistent nameplate and manual across models |
| Buyer who needs exclusivity in a territory | No | We do not offer it, and you should know before you invest |
| Buyer who needs a local type approval we do not hold | No | A brand on the machine does not create a certification |
Why We Do Not Offer Exclusivity
We do not grant territorial exclusivity on private label dumbwaiters, and that is a deliberate policy rather than a gap in the offer. The same market can hold more than one of our trade buyers, and we will not promise one of them that it will not.
The honest reason is that we cannot police it. A territory promise is only as good as the supplier’s willingness to refuse a better order later, and we would rather not make a promise we might break. A dealer who needs contractual protection is better served by a supply agreement with volume commitments than by an exclusivity clause we would resent.
What you get instead is transparency: we will tell you if we already supply a trade buyer in your market, and roughly what they take. That is more useful than a clause, because it lets you price your entry rather than guess at it.
What We Do Not Do on a Private Label Dumbwaiter
A short list, because the boundary is what makes the rest of this page credible.
We do not apply for certification in your market on your behalf. We will supply the technical file that an application needs, and we will answer the questions an assessor asks, but the application, the fees and the local representative are yours.
We do not build passenger lifts or full elevators. A dumbwaiter is a goods-only lift and the whole range is designed around that, from 50 kg to 300 kg. If a project needs to carry people, it needs a different supplier and a different set of rules.
We do not install. Site installation is done by you or by your contractor, with the manual and remote support from us. Two weeks on site is normal for a first unit and it is not work we can do remotely.
We do not put your name into our marketing. No case studies, no logo walls, no reference calls to your customers. A private label relationship is your commercial information, and the fastest way to lose a dealer is to display them.
Private Label Dumbwaiter: Questions Dealers Ask
These are the seven questions that come up in almost every private label dumbwaiter enquiry, answered with the same terms used above.
What is the minimum order for a private label dumbwaiter?
One unit. There is no volume condition on the branding itself. The one-week lead-time difference applies to that first unit, and it does not shrink with quantity, because the artwork and the drawing review happen once either way.
Can the certificate be issued in my company name?
No, and any supplier who says yes is describing something they cannot do. The certificate is issued to the manufacturer. What you receive is an authorisation to use it for the units built for you, plus an EU declaration of conformity that can name your company as the importer.
Can I change the brand on a repeat order?
Yes. The nameplate, the carton marking and the cabinet label are print items, and each is a small setup rather than a redesign. Changing the manual is the slow one, because a new language is a new document.
Do you supply the technical file without your branding?
Yes. The general arrangement drawing, electrical schematic, load calculation and spare parts list are all held in unbranded form. That set is what most trade buyers hand to their own installer, because a drawing with a supplier name on it invites questions the installer cannot answer.
How much longer does a private label dumbwaiter order take?
About one week, measured from artwork approval rather than from deposit. Production itself is unchanged at 15 to 25 working days, and freight is the same 2 to 3 weeks whether the crate carries your name or ours.
Do you sell to my competitors in my country?
Possibly, and you will know before you order. We do not grant territorial exclusivity on a private label dumbwaiter, so one market can hold more than one trade buyer. What we will do is say whether we already supply someone in your country and roughly what volume they take, so you can price your entry instead of guessing at it. If that answer breaks your business case, better now than after a container.
Can I sell dumbwaiters under my own brand?
Yes, starting from one unit. You place the order, we build it, and the nameplate, manual and carton carry your brand. What does not change is where the unit was built: the serial number still traces to our floor, and that traceability is what keeps the warranty and the certificate authorisation valid.
Who We Already Supply, and How to Start
Most of our private label dumbwaiter volume goes to four kinds of buyer: dumbwaiter and lift dealers adding a goods-lift line, engineering and installation contractors who want their name on the equipment they service, regional brands assembling a product range, and trading companies building a brand before they build a warehouse.
What they have in common is not size. It is that each of them sells to somebody else, which means the machine has to stand up on its own once it leaves the crate, without us in the room.
If you are still deciding whether to represent an existing brand rather than start your own, how to pick a dumbwaiter brand for wholesale covers that decision from the reseller’s side. If you have already decided, the next useful reads are how a dumbwaiter factory runs, choosing a manufacturer in China, a general checklist for finding a reliable manufacturer and how to verify a supplier before you send a deposit.
On the commercial side, what a food lift costs sets out the machine price bands, deposit and payment terms covers the payment structure, and importing a dumbwaiter from China covers freight and customs. Drawings you can send to your own installer are in the free construction sketch set.
If you want the private label dumbwaiter terms in writing before you commit to anything, send the six shaft figures and your brand name through the contact page. The reply will include the nameplate layout, the manual language options and the unbranded file list, so you can see exactly what arrives with the first unit.
