Outsourcing production of finished products to Contract manufacturing has gained popularity with brand owners who want to focus on their core business activities. Contract manufacturing companies in South Africa have generally struggled to operate sustainably. The reasons for this are varied. There is very little literature on factors that are critical for contract manufacturing companies to operate sustainably. This study was conducted to close this gap by obtaining input from experts with experience in contract manufacturing. The method used was a two round Delphi study and this paper describes the outputs from the second round where the critical success factors emerged. The factors were identified based on the experts achieving pre-determined consensus criteria in their responses.

Key words: Consensus, critical success factors, contract manufacturing, experts