Selecting a cat litter manufacturer is a strategic decision that shapes your margins, your brand reputation, and how reliably you can stay in stock. The right plant delivers repeatable quality at scale, meets compliance requirements without drama, and communicates quickly when plans change. The wrong one loads your team with preventable issues—dusty bags, weak clumps, late sailings, and paperwork gaps that stall customs. Use the five factors below to evaluate candidates with a B2B lens and build a partnership that supports growth.
Supplier context: Operating from one of the world’s top-three bentonite-producing regions, MiiCat manufactures bentonite clumping clay, plant-based (tofu/soy, corn, wood/paper), mineral, and engineered blends, and can provide method-named COAs, batch-level traceability, and OEM/ODM packaging support.

🧪 Material expertise & formulation know-how

Not all litter is built alike. Confirm the cat litter manufacturer has documented experience with the materials you plan to sell and can translate consumer expectations into tests you both can reproduce.

• Bentonite (clumping clay): Ask how they control particle-size distribution (PSD), moisture, and drying curves; clarify sodium vs. calcium bentonite and why it fits your market.

• Plant-based/“tofu” (soy, corn, wood/paper blends): Probe fiber sourcing, heavy-metal limits (where applicable), and how they prevent caking and fragrance carryover in warm, humid seasons.

• Silica gel (crystals): Verify grain uniformity and indicator stability; align on odor-control expectations and tray-change intervals.

Turn shopper expectations into testable targets: absorption per 100 g, time to initial clump, a timed clump-integrity test (let the clump set 10–15 minutes, run a controlled drop/sieve, record % mass retained), PSD bands, dust/fines limits by sieve, and a moisture window with the method specified (oven-dry vs handheld). Make these part of the RFQ/PO and approve a dated Golden Sample retained on both sides.
How MiiCat helps: matched A/B lots (e.g., with/without carbon) from the same line, aligned PSD/moisture windows, and third-party test IDs attached to COAs.

⚙️ Capacity, lead times & scalability

Even excellent formulas fail when the line can’t keep up. Request numbers by production line: monthly output, typical and peak lead times, changeover times, and the peak-season playbook (extra shifts, sister lines, maintenance calendar). Ask how fast they can flex if your hero SKU doubles after a retailer rollout.

Capacity lives in packaging, too: confirm film types/thicknesses they run reliably, zipper/valve formats, seal parameters, and master-carton grades (ECT/burst). For dense, granular goods, a proven pallet plan is part of capacity—stable, cube-efficient pallets load faster, damage less, and protect landed cost. Align MOQs at two stages—trial (often pallet-level) and steady state (usually FCL)—so pricing tiers and forecasts are realistic.
How MiiCat helps: line-level capacity ledgers, peak-season plans, and palletization drawings validated against your lanes before first FCL.

📑 Quality systems & compliance you can audit

Quality is a process, not a promise. Before price, validate the system:

• Standards & documents: ISO 9001 (quality) and, where relevant, ISO 14001 (environment); current SDS; market-specific awareness (EU REACH, California Prop 65). A quality manual should map batch codes → raw materials → test results for fast traceability.

• Incoming → in-process → outgoing controls: moisture checks at receiving; sieve/PSD controls and drying curves in process; in-line dust monitoring at transfer points; routine net-weight verification. Outgoing checks should follow an AQL plan and include seal-strength pulls, carton/pallet tests, and performance spot-tests.

• COA discipline: a per-lot COA listing moisture, PSD, dust/fines, clump-integrity with timestamps and named methods (not just “pass/fail”), plus a loading report (container & seal numbers, pallet count, wrap details). Keep 2–3 retain bags per lot on both sides for ≥12 months.

• Labels & claims: if you market “biodegradable,” “flushable,” or “low dust,” insist on supporting reports aligned to destination rules; confirm label elements (languages, recycling/disposal icons, COO, barcode placement) and who signs artwork.
How MiiCat helps: method-named COAs, anonymized batch-record excerpts on request, SDS on file, and retailer-ready label support (dielines, barcode placement, recycling icons).

🎨 Customization & OEM/ODM capability

Private-label wins come from practical customization, not infinite options. Evaluate whether the manufacturer can execute the few choices that matter most:

• Formula knobs: granule size/shape (tracking vs scoopability), odor-control approach (porosity only vs activated carbon/zeolite vs restrained fragrance), and an unscented variant.

• Retail pack: common sizes (5–20 L or 5–25 kg), film selection (PE/PP/laminate), zipper/valve + heat-seal parameters, and print quality.

• Transit pack: carton board grade/ECT matched to your pallet pattern/route duration; edge guards, slip-sheets, defined wrap tension.

• Artwork & languages: dielines, barcode placement, multilingual templates, and change-control so small edits don’t derail bookings.

Discuss costing early: amortize artwork/setup across the first realistic volume; a slightly adjusted carton footprint that cubes out containers can beat shaving cents off ex-factory.
How MiiCat helps: OEM/ODM team for dielines and multilingual packs, plus pack footprints tuned to container fill without touching the core formula.

🤝 Communication, terms & day-to-day fit

Great partnerships run on responsiveness and clear lanes of responsibility. You want an English-speaking PM, a reachable QA owner, and a logistics contact who gives reliable ETAs. Sample turnaround speed and email clarity are predictive—if they struggle now, OTIF will struggle later.

Structure commercial terms for reality:

• Pricing architecture: tie unit rates to accepted quarterly volume (not one-off peaks). Compare FOB vs CIF/CFR (DDP only with trusted partners) using a shared formula: landed cost per kg/L = (ex-works/FOB + ocean freight + insurance + destination charges + duty/tax) ÷ sellable units.

• Lead-time stages: write the timeline from sample approval → production slot → booking → sailing; reserve a booking window to avoid premium freight.

• Quality-linked payments: release the balance against an on-time COA and a complete loading report (container & seal numbers, pallet count).

• Exclusivity & territory: if needed, link to minimum quarterly take and on-time payments with scheduled reviews.

• Change control: no swaps in film, fragrance, or granule spec without written approval and new samples—“tiny optimizations” are the usual source of dust spikes, weak seals, and review slippage.
How MiiCat helps: tiered pricing tied to accepted volume, quality-tied payment milestones, and transparent document templates that make audits quick.

🧾 Putting it together (a compact checklist)

• Material mastery: proves experience in bentonite, plant-based, or crystals—and translates it into testable targets.
• Scalable ops: output by line, lead times, peak-season plan, and packaging that survives your lanes.
• Auditable quality: method-named COAs, AQL plans, retains, traceable batch codes.
• OEM that matters: focused customization, multilingual labels, pack plans that cube out containers.
• Commercial fit: responsive team, staged lead times, landed-cost modeling across Incoterms, quality-linked payments. Optional pilot: MiiCat can arrange a 20 kg lab sample or a trial-pallet MOQ using the same spec and batch controls as FCL, so you validate rotation before scaling.

Bottom line: Choose a cat litter manufacturer who measures what matters, scales without sacrificing consistency, and communicates like a true partner. Lock methods and expectations into the paperwork, then run a steady cadence of forecasting, production slots, and light but consistent arrival checks. Do that, and you’ll ship product that looks—and performs—exactly like the sample your customers approved, order after order—with MiiCat ready to back that promise with reproducible specs and batch-level QC.