Custom sourcing
Locating manufacturers for a defined specification and quantity, and bringing back comparable offers rather than a list of names.
Trading and sourcing
Finding the right manufacturer, verifying it, buying the goods and delivering them — as principal, on commercial terms, with the movement handled in-house.
What this is
Alongside freight forwarding, we buy and supply goods to customer specification. This is our secondary registered activity in Singapore: wholesale trade of a variety of goods without a dominant product, SSIC 46900.
In this role we are the principal. We contract with the manufacturer, we take title to the goods, and we sell them on to you. Your contract is with us and your invoice is for goods, not for a service. We state which role applies on every transaction rather than leaving it to be inferred from the paperwork.
The advantage of buying from a company that also arranges freight is simple: the movement is not a separate problem handed to a third party after the goods are ready. Packing, marks, documents and shipping dates are decided while the order is still being placed.
How a sourcing project runs
Specification
We work from what the goods must do, not from a catalogue picture: materials, dimensions, tolerances, certifications, packaging, target landed cost and required quantity.
Search
We identify manufacturers capable of the specification and quantity, and rule out traders presenting themselves as factories.
Verification
We check the supplier before money moves — registration, production capability, references and, where warranted, a physical visit or third-party inspection at your cost and instruction.
Quotation
You receive the delivered cost, the lead time, the payment terms and the Incoterms® 2020 rule with its named place, so the offer can be compared like for like.
Order and production
The order is placed against a written specification. Production progress is reported. Changes are confirmed in writing before they are made.
Inspection and shipment
Goods are checked against the specification before they ship. Independent pre-shipment inspection can be arranged at your request. Then the shipment moves under our forwarding side.
Focus areas
Supplier verification
Establishing that a supplier exists, produces what it claims to produce, and can hold the specification at your volume.
What we will not do
- Describe a trading company as a manufacturer because it is easier to place an order there
- Present a sample from one factory and produce in another
- Issue documents that describe goods differently from what is in the container
- Accept or make payment through a third party unrelated to the transaction
- Trade goods that require a licence or authorisation we do not hold