Hunting for a middleman

[Chunky Beagle]

I'm looking at having a product manufatured in China.

Does anyone know of any reputable middlemen in the UK.

 

[SLDHosting]

I'm looking at having a product manufatured in China.

Does anyone know of any reputable middlemen in the UK.

Their is acouple of companys in the uk which do this type of thing, Manufacturing in china can be costly by any means.

Regards

 

[Chunky Beagle]

Thanks SLD Hosting,

Do you have there names?

 

[sanjiv]

I have heard good things about Oz Qadir on this forum.

 

[DealSwift]

PM me. I can help.

 

[maz25]

What sort of things do you need?

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Chunky,

what type of item is it?

 

[Moneyman]

I can thouroughly reccomend lawrie Elwell of product sourcing services.
i have used him a few times and he always seems to do a great job and has all the right contacts in China and everywhere. He might even tell you he can get it done better outside china. some things are actually cheaper to make in europe!

 

[wholesalecity]

You forgot to say what kind of products you want.

 

[davek17]

Just stating the obvious here, but is it not an option for you to fly out there, get an intepreter and spend a week visiting factories. Probably cheaper and less risky than a middle man? The best way is to go out there and co-develop your product, quickly getting protypes and then seeing the product develop?

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

davek17,

I would applaud anyone who did that - it shows a lot of drive and bottle!

However, not knowing even the basics of sourcing can be a costly experience, not only in financial terms, but, in extreme cases, liberty - if a product is imported and blatantly is unsafe and someone is injured or killed, the buck will stop with the importer. Sure, this is a rare or extreme outcome, but all to easy to achieve!

I have just received an item via ebay and although it can with a 3 pin plug/lead, there is no way it is legal!!! It didnt have a fuse. Luckily, I didnt have to use it, but if I did and it failed, I would have been keeping the LFB busy for a couple hours!

 

[Chunky Beagle]

Thanks for the reply all.

It is a plastic product aimed at the gardening market. Manufacturing costs will be around £1.00 per unit.

 

[Moneyman]

A trip out there is well worth it. but unless you plan to go out every shipment. you needd someone to check on the product.

Also never assume that it is definitely cheaper to do something overseas. Once you have paid tax, dealt with the amounts you have to order to cover products in transport, lack of redress if there are faults etc. it is often only marginally cheaper than the UK or europe. China is often only cheaper if there is a lot of manual work to be done. A simple plastic moulding for instance can be cheaper in the uk anyway.

 

[Chunky Beagle]

A trip out there is well worth it. but unless you plan to go out every shipment. you needd someone to check on the product.

Also never assume that it is definitely cheaper to do something overseas. Once you have paid tax, dealt with the amounts you have to order to cover products in transport, lack of redress if there are faults etc. it is often only marginally cheaper than the UK or europe. China is often only cheaper if there is a lot of manual work to be done. A simple plastic moulding for instance can be cheaper in the uk anyway.

Could you recommend a good UK based plasics manufacturer?