Supplier verification
Establishing that a supplier is what it says it is, before an order is placed and before money moves.
Why this comes first
Most problems in international trade are not exotic. They are ordinary: a supplier that turns out to be a trading office, a factory that has never made the variant you ordered, a production line that holds the specification for a sample and loses it at volume, or a company whose registration does not match the name on the invoice.
Verification is cheaper than the alternative at every stage, and it becomes exponentially cheaper the earlier it happens.
What is checked
| Check | What it establishes |
|---|---|
| Corporate registration | The company exists, is currently registered, and the name on the invoice matches the registered entity |
| Business scope | The registered activity covers what the supplier proposes to sell |
| Production capability | The supplier manufactures the product rather than buying it in |
| Capacity | The claimed lead time is plausible for your volume |
| Quality process | How the specification is controlled during production, and what is recorded |
| Certification | Any certificate presented is current, issued by a named body, and identified by number |
| References | The supplier has delivered comparable work before |
| Banking consistency | The account named for payment belongs to the contracting entity — not to an individual or an unrelated company |
Inspection
Where the value or the risk justifies it, goods are inspected before they ship. Inspection can be arranged as a physical visit, or as an independent pre-shipment inspection by a third-party surveyor engaged at your request and instruction.
Inspection is commissioned per shipment. We do not describe an inspection regime as permanently in place when it is arranged case by case.