A good fit
You run the brand yourself. You have a product idea and some drawings or samples. You need someone who knows factories personally and will tell you when your quantity is too small or your target price is not real.
Garments
Find a clothing manufacturer for your brand
Tell us what you are making and we go to factories we have already looked at ourselves. Every one prices the same written brief. You pay the factory directly, and nothing to us.
You have designs, a size run and a quantity, and you need a factory that will take the order seriously. That is what this office does. Tell us what you are making, in whatever words you have, and we go to factories we have already looked at ourselves in Pakistan, Bangladesh and China. Every one of them prices the same written brief, so the quotes come back on one basis and you can read them side by side. You pay the factory directly. Your money never passes through us, and there is no fee to you for any of it.
Buying bed linen, towels, quilts, curtains or rugs instead? That is made the same way, on the same terms, at the home textile desk, which has its own label in the menu above, its own buying guide, its own numbers and its own enquiry.
First time ordering production? The step by step guide walks the whole purchase, from working backwards out of your selling price to the claim window after delivery. Free, and there is nothing to sign up to.
This desk takes a small number of brands at a time, by enquiry only. If we are full,
or if your quantities are too small for the factories to run properly, we will say so
straight away rather than take you through a process that leads nowhere.
Who it is for
Who this is for, and who it is not
Not a fit
You want stock held for you, credit terms from us, or the cheapest possible quote with nobody checking the goods. We do none of those, and saying so now saves us both a month.
How it works, in four steps
The whole thing in 80 seconds
How a first production order actually runs
Brief to shipment for a first order: the four stages, the three payment milestones, and the three things this desk will not do.
Read it instead
You have a product and no factory. Here is how a first production order actually runs.
The fear is always the same. You pay, and then you find out what you bought.
Brief, factory shortlist, sampling, then bulk with an inspection before it ships.
You pay against milestones, and every milestone is something you can see. Nothing is due for a stage that has not happened.
The inspection is arranged by us and paid by you, directly to the agency. That way the inspector works for you, not for the party who wants the container to leave.
Three things we will not do: hold your stock, extend you credit, or sit between you and the factory on payment.
Asking costs nothing. There is no fee to enquire, no fee for quotes, and nothing to subscribe to.
Tell us what you are making. If your quantity is too small to run properly, we will say so straight away.
01
Tell us what you are making and how many
Product, quantity, target launch, and a tech pack link if you have one. A tech pack is the one document a factory can quote from: drawing, measurements, fabric, trims, stitching, labels and packing. If you do not have one, we will tell you what is missing.
02
We check the factories and pick two or three
For your product and your quantity. Pakistan, Bangladesh or China. You see who is being considered and why.
03
You get quotes on one basis, side by side
With the factory’s sample charge, minimum and lead time written in, so the quotes actually compare.
04
You sample, you order, you pay the factory direct
And an inspector you pay checks the goods before they ship.
The four numbers everyone asks for. Minimum order quantity, lead time, sample charge and payment schedule are the factory's numbers, not ours, and they differ by product and by season. Publishing an invented average would be worse than silence. What we do instead: every quote you receive has that factory's own four written in.
What about the minimum order?
It is not one number, and that is why nobody honest prints one. It is three numbers in sequence, and the first of them is not the factory at all.
The fabric mill's dye lot comes first. Cloth is dyed in a batch, and below a certain size the mill will not set the machine for it. That lot, not the sewing line, is usually what decides whether a small order can be made at all. The sewing line comes second, and it is normally the smallest of the three, because a line has to be set up and a set-up is worth doing for a run rather than for a handful. The trims come last, and they are the ones that surprise people. A woven label, a zip or a tape in your own colour often carries a higher minimum than the cloth it is going on.
So the useful question is not what the minimum is but which of the three you are hitting, because each has a different way out. The factory's own numbers are written into every quote you receive, and quantities and the minimum in the buying guide works through it with the cloth in front of you. The whole subject, with seven ways a small brand gets the number down, is on minimum order quantity, explained.
Payment
When you pay, who is paid, and for what
Each milestone is something you can see and check. Nothing is due for a stage that has not happened, and every payment goes to the party doing the work, never through us.
Milestone 1
Brief accepted and factories shortlisted
You see who is being considered and why, before any sample is cut.
Nobody is paid anything at this stage.
Milestone 2
Sample approved
A physical sample against your tech pack, approved by you in writing.
You pay the factory its sample charge, to the factory directly. Nothing is owed to us.
Milestone 3
Bulk inspected and shipped
Third party inspection passed and goods shipped.
You pay the factory the balance and the inspection agency its fee, both directly. The factory pays our fee, and only when the goods ship.
The deposit itself, when you place the bulk order, goes to the factory against its pro forma invoice, to a company bank account and never a personal one. The guide's step ten walks the safe way to pay it.
What the office actually does
One sentence each, and only what is true today.
Check the factory
Registration, capacity, machines, certificates and export record, confirmed before a factory is put in front of you.
Get comparable quotes
One specification, one quantity, one term.
Tell you straight
If the quantity cannot run or the target price is not real, you hear it in the first reply, free.
Arrange the inspection
An independent agency, paid by you, reporting to you, before the goods leave.
Stay out of your money
No stock, no credit, no escrow. You pay the factory, and the factory pays our fee only when it ships.
Inspection
Independent inspection before shipping
Bulk goods are inspected by an independent inspection company before shipment, and the report goes to you. We arrange it and you pay the agency directly, so the inspector is working for you rather than for the party who wants the shipment to leave. If an inspection fails, it fails, and we deal with the factory on it.
Seven questions to ask before you pay any sourcing agent
Including the uncomfortable ones you should ask us. If an agent cannot answer these clearly, that is your answer.
Read the seven questions, with the answer we would give under each
If you are about to work with a sourcing agent, an indenter or a trading house, these seven questions will tell you most of what you need to know. They apply to us as much as to anyone else, so the answer we would give is included under each one.
1. Who pays you, and when?
The most important question, and the one most often answered vaguely. An agent paid by the supplier has different incentives from one paid by you. Both are workable, but you should know which you are dealing with. Ask when the fee is earned too, because a fee on order is very different from a fee on shipment.
Our answer: the supplier pays, and only when a shipment happens. Buyers pay nothing at any stage.
2. Do you take a position on the goods?
Some intermediaries buy and resell, which makes them a trader with a margin you cannot see, not an agent. Neither is wrong, but they are different businesses and the pricing works differently.
Our answer: no. We hold no stock and never own the goods. You contract with the mill.
3. Does my money pass through you?
If it does, ask what happens to your money if the agent’s business fails while it is sitting with them. This is a real risk that people tend to discover late.
Our answer: no. You pay the mill directly. We never hold buyer funds and we offer no escrow.
4. What happens if the goods are wrong?
The honest answer is never that it will not happen. Ask what the actual process is, who pays for inspection, and who talks to the mill.
Our answer: inspection is arranged with an independent agency and you pay them directly, so the inspector is working for you. If a shipment fails, we deal with the mill on it. We cannot compensate you for goods we never owned, and we will not pretend otherwise.
5. Are you also advising my competitors, or me?
Worth asking anyone who both advises and sells. It is not automatically a problem. Undisclosed, it is.
Our answer: advisory and sourcing are kept separate. If we advise your company on procurement, you will know in writing before any sourcing fee is earned anywhere near you.
6. What do you do if someone asks for a facilitation payment?
In several markets in this trade this is a live question rather than a theoretical one. You should know the answer before it happens, not after.
Our answer: we do not pay them and we do not accept them. If anyone asks you for one in connection with something we introduced, tell us, and we stop working with them.
7. What will you not do?
An agent who says yes to everything has told you nothing. The useful answer is a specific list.
Our answer: no stock, no credit, no escrow, no routing between India and Pakistan, and no product category we cannot check properly. Today that means two things and nothing else: fibre, yarn and fabric through the raw material desk, and finished garments with their trims through the garment office. Dyes, chemicals and machinery are outside both.
If an agent gives you clear answers to all seven, you are probably in reasonable hands, whether or not that agent is us. If they get vague on question one or question three, slow down.
Before you enquire, the garment market numbers show what your product line is doing and whether your selling market is ordering: forty product lines with their supplier countries, Europe, the UK, the US and the Gulf, freight per kilo and six origin countries compared
Common questions
What is the minimum order for a garment?
It is not one number. It is three in sequence: the fabric mill's dye lot comes first and usually decides whether a small order can be made at all, the sewing line comes second and is normally the smallest, and trims such as a woven label or a zip in your own colour often carry a higher minimum than the cloth.
Can you get samples made before I commit?
Yes, and you should. The sample is where a specification stops being words and starts being cloth, and it is the last cheap place to change your mind. The step by step guide sets out what a sampling round covers and what to look at when it arrives.
Should I make in Pakistan, Bangladesh or China?
It depends on the cloth, the duty your market charges and how fast you need it. We will tell you which of the three suits your product before anybody quotes, and the duty page carries what each market charges so you can check us.
Do you take a cut of my order?
Nothing. There is no fee to send a request, no fee to receive quotes, no fee to be introduced to a supplier, and nothing to subscribe to. You are never invoiced by us for any of it. The supplier pays us a success fee, and only if a shipment actually happens. If nothing ships, nobody pays us anything.