Sourcing from China, made simple — and transparent
We help UK businesses find factories, manage production, and land goods at their door — without the guesswork, and without the hidden middleman margin. You always see the real factory price. Our fee is our fee.
One team, the whole journey — from finding the right factory to pallets on your loading bay.
Find the right factory
We search beyond Alibaba — including the better factories with no English website — verify they're real, and get you comparable quotes.
Manage production
Samples, negotiation in the supplier's own language, and quality control during the run. We catch problems while they're still cheap to fix.
Inspect before you pay
A pre-shipment check before your final balance is released — the one moment a factory has every reason to put things right at its own cost.
Ship to your door
Freight, customs and delivery to your UK address, coordinated throughout.
You see the real price. We don't mark up your goods or take hidden commission from factories. You always know what the factory charged.
Native-language negotiation. We deal with your suppliers in their own language — the difference between a quote and a good quote.
UK-based, China-fluent. A UK company you can meet and invoice, handling the China side so you don't have to.
You own the relationship. You know your factory, you see the prices. If we part ways, you keep your supply chain.
Three ways in, depending on where you are:
Just checking a supplier? You've found a factory and want to know it's genuine before you pay. We verify it and give you a clear risk report. (From £199.)
Need to find a factory? You know what you want to make but not who should make it. We find, vet and shortlist real manufacturers, with comparable quotes and samples. (From £595.)
Want the whole thing run? From idea to delivery — sourcing, production, inspection, shipping — managed end to end. (Quoted per project after a free scoping call.)
They pay a "manufacturer" who turns out to be a trading company. Registered capital of £2,000, a rented office, and a 30% markup you never see. Alibaba doesn't tell you which is which. Chinese company records do — if you can read them.
They discover the compliance problem after the container lands. The product is fine. The paperwork isn't. A pallet of upholstered furniture without the right fire safety documentation is a pallet you legally cannot sell in the UK.
They pay a middleman who won't tell them who makes their product. Which is fine, until the middleman raises prices, goes quiet, or goes under — and you have no supply chain of your own, because you never owned it.
Fixed fees, published on this site. We don't mark up your production costs and we don't take commission from factories. If we quote you £595 for a supplier search, £595 is what we earn. You'll see exactly what the factory charges.
You can, and for simple low-value products you probably should. Alibaba ranks suppliers by who pays for placement, not by who's good. It also can't tell you whether a company is a real manufacturer, whether their certificates are current, or whether your product is legal to sell in the UK.
Then you probably want a verification report or a pre-shipment inspection rather than a full sourcing project. Plenty of clients start there.
Freight, customs clearance and delivery are coordinated as part of full sourcing projects. Shipping costs are passed through at cost with no markup.
Furniture and homeware are where our factory relationships are strongest. We've also worked across general consumer goods and industrial components. If your category is outside what we know well, we'll say so.
Yes — London-based company, UK contract, UK bank account, and someone you can meet in person. The China side is ours to worry about.
No sales pitch, no obligation. If the honest answer is that you don't need us, that's what you'll hear.
Or email hello@elephantsourcing.co.uk