An
original design manufacturer (
ODM) is a company that designs and manufactures a product as specified and eventually
rebranded by another firm for sale. Such companies allow the
brand firm to produce products (either as a supplement or solely) without having to engage in the organization or running of a
factory. ODMs have grown in size in recent years and many have the scale to handle production for multiple clients, often providing a large portion of overall production. A primary attribute of this
business model is that the ODM owns and/or designs in-house the products that are branded by the buying firm. This is in contrast to a
contract manufacturer (CM).