Anyone have any China manufacturing/sourcing/importing experience?

[Manny]

Get on a plane (just like you did for the FSU). The personal relationships made and first hand knowledge is invaluable.

I've been pricing flights this morning actually. Virgin fly direct to Shanghai from London. 

[Herrie]

Get on a plane (just like you did for the FSU). The personal relationships made and first hand knowledge is invaluable.

I've been pricing flights this morning actually. Virgin fly direct to Shanghai from London. 

Depending what you need you might be better off more south close to Shenzhen (fly to Hong Kong and hop across the border with the proper visa (they might issue 5 day ones on the spot at the border for UK citizens, country list seems to vary quite often though...). In Shenzhen you need at least someone who speaks the language, English won't bring you very far everywhere.... Might ask around in our office to see if they happen to have some contacts in local manuf. plants

[Chris]

So you no longer want to pay middle men for the junk, you wish to buy and sell the junk directly 

Exactly that. 

Thanks for the replies up to now, and the couple of very useful PMs. 

Don't tell me Vance 'Kitchen Gangster' Miller will be having some competition sometime soon 

[AJ]

Get on a plane (just like you did for the FSU). The personal relationships made and first hand knowledge is invaluable.

I did want face to face personal relationships.
and flying there isn't a bad idea,
but you need to have already decided on a few in a given city or cities to visit.

sound familiar?

 The international trade shows (in this case Milan and Koln) worked out well for establishing this, since there were so many manf. in attendance and samples on display. After selecting a few i could go to their home country if needed to further things.
 I have ended up with a few scattered around Asia which would have been more difficult and costly to try to do flying in directly to cities/countries of potential manf's.*shrugs*.

I just dint find  WMVM ,or WOVO , as an effective method, in this type pursuit, verses having  an  industrial ,, umm *social* in Europe (or US) with lots of attendees..and name tags
 

[AJ]

Amusingly from this discussion of worry about Chinese knockoffs,I received an email today showing an infringement on one of my trademarks.(not  patent)
Seems likely made in China ,  but more funny, its listed by a Brit , on UK-ebay.
What the heck, I bought one! 
I'll wait till its shipped to have egay pull the listing.
but demonstrates it wouldn't matter where you first made a product ( i did not make this in Asia) if someone sees any value ,they may attempt to  copy /market it.

[Manny]

So you no longer want to pay middle men for the junk, you wish to buy and sell the junk directly 

Exactly that. 

Thanks for the replies up to now, and the couple of very useful PMs. 

Don't tell me Vance 'Kitchen Gangster' Miller will be having some competition sometime soon 

This guy.

How strange he is almost on my doorstep, I know of the firm, I recall the name mentioned in the local media, I know that mill even. Yet I didnt really know who the bloke is.

I'd have a beer with him. I am sure he knows some stuff. 

[Manny]

What the heck, I bought one! 

Every time I launch a product or market an item that is not manufacturer approved, the trademark rights holder - as they have web crawlers that alert a team to any mention of their name on the net -  knows within moments. The first one always goes to them (so they can have lawyers crawl all over it). To a seemingly innocuous residential address in the Shires, a few miles from their head office. 

I once launched a website selling a product, turned it on, did the pre-written Twitter, Facebook, PR feed and Google stuff right after in quick succession, and the first sale was within thirty minutes. To that address. 

The same company told me a few weeks ago that they wouldn't supply me a certain range of stuff. And that they will alert every agent in Europe of their decision. And they have. I cant even buy in Romania or South Africa!

My response was "Well, if you won't supply me, I'll go and have them made someplace and bring the price down to less than half across the board". They were like "Yeah, whatever".

Well, I like a challenge. Especially if there is a few quid in it. So China here we come.   

[tonton]

Depending what you need you might be better off more south close to Shenzhen (fly to Hong Kong and hop across the border with the proper visa (they might issue 5 day ones on the spot at the border for UK citizens, country list seems to vary quite often though...). In Shenzhen you need at least someone who speaks the language, English won't bring you very far everywhere.... Might ask around in our office to see if they happen to have some contacts in local manuf. plants

As Herrie has noted, Shenzhen would be the city to visit for electronics. Having been there a few times, it's choke full of electrical factories, most are not so reliable in providing quality but there are a handful which I know and have used that are reputable.
English assistance is necessary, and while most of the sales staff have a good grasp of English, an independent person who factories rely on to bring business to them is necessary to ensure that the product manufactured is of sound quality; these persons get paid commission by the factory and if the factory was providing shit then no repeat business. There is a guy I met a few times at trade fairs in Europe who does just this, although from our conversations it related to paper products but am sure he does other. He is an Englishman spending 50/50 between London and China, and I'll track his details and send via PM, plus the factory which I've used for USB manufacture.

L/C's are the only way, never give a deposit--too many sharks there.

[Manny]

I took a punt putting this topic here, my reasoning was that from a bunch of chaps who can afford to travel to the FSU, many will be self employed or in senior positions and many might have relevant experience.

I am shocked (in a nice way) at the quality of replies and PM's. I've got some excellent meat to chew on and even a few potential contacts already. Really impressed. 

Thanks to everyone who replied on the topic or by PM (and three by Skype). If I haven't replied a PM it doesn't mean I didn't appreciate it. I'll catch up (I can be slow at replying PM's).

Keep it coming. 

[Chris]

So you no longer want to pay middle men for the junk, you wish to buy and sell the junk directly 

Exactly that. 

Thanks for the replies up to now, and the couple of very useful PMs. 

Don't tell me Vance 'Kitchen Gangster' Miller will be having some competition sometime soon 

This guy.

How strange he is almost on my doorstep, I know of the firm, I recall the name mentioned in the local media, I know that mill even. Yet I didnt really know who the bloke is.

I'd have a beer with him. I am sure he knows some stuff. 

That's the one, if you get chance watch the documentary's made about his adventures in China, Channel 4 I think a few years ago, where he had his tour coach made out with Olympic rings so it made it easier for him to get around, (less questions asked) a bit of a lovable rogue really, but he has big b*+!!s and certainly knows the market over in China, but even he has been ripped off to the tune of over £100k, by the chinkies, he does what he can to recover it, but usually writes it off as a business expense.

[Manny]

Some of the stuff I want made are simple plastic parts. Togliatti has many companies that make such stuff for Aftovaz for cars. The machinery and skill is obviously out there. So I thought, why not manufacture in Russia?

I did a Google search and wifey is all over it talking to folks out there now.

There is a possibility we can manufacture in Russia instead of China. No copyright/IP issues there, money stays in Europe, goods arrive faster by road. No language barriers. Seems like a win win.

I'd rather manufacture in my wife's hometown to be honest. I think we'd be better able to keep a lid on QC and if the places know that some of our family live there, and someone can call down to check something out, they will feel they are dealing with locals. So we might avoid the "foreign rip off".

Liking this idea up to now. It might have some mileage.

[Mikeav8r]

Some of the stuff I want made are simple plastic parts. Togliatti has many companies that make such stuff for Aftovaz for cars. The machinery and skill is obviously out there. So I thought, why not manufacture in Russia?

I did a Google search and wifey is all over it talking to folks out there now.

There is a possibility we can manufacture in Russia instead of China. No copyright/IP issues there, money stays in Europe, goods arrive faster by road. No language barriers. Seems like a win win.

I'd rather manufacture in my wife's hometown to be honest. I think we'd be better able to keep a lid on QC and the places know that some of our family live there, someone can call down to check something out and they will feel they are dealing with locals.

Liking this idea up to now.

So stop talking and start doing...

[WestCoast]

Some of the stuff I want made are simple plastic parts. Togliatti has many companies that make such stuff for Aftovaz for cars. The machinery and skill is obviously out there. So I thought, why not manufacture in Russia?

I did a Google search and wifey is all over it talking to folks out there now.

There is a possibility we can manufacture in Russia instead of China. No copyright/IP issues there, money stays in Europe, goods arrive faster by road. No language barriers. Seems like a win win.

I'd rather manufacture in my wife's hometown to be honest. I think we'd be better able to keep a lid on QC and the places know that some of our family live there, someone can call down to check something out and they will feel they are dealing with locals.

Liking this idea up to now.

While I have no personal experience with outsourcing to China I have plenty of friends who do. I've been to China on a number of trips with them scouting out factories to make their products, mostly clothing for the North American market. What I can say is if you are trying to outsource small batches, under 100,000 units, of low cost, under $1 per unit, of simple to make plastic parts you will find lots of factories in China to fill your orders. You will also find many problems.

As you mention the first problem is the language barrier. Most of the factories have people that speak English, of varying degrees. Some of the Chinese owners are North American born entrepreneurs who are fluent in English. Others not so much. The quality and quantity of English speakers rose rapidly prior to the Beijing Olympics and while still improving has a ways to go before you'd feel comfortable in most meetings at the average factory.

Quality control is always a big issue. My friends who were born and raised in China and now live in Canada (at least part time) are always complaining about having to keep an eye on QC issues. The Chinese factories will cut corners every chance they get, just to save a few pennies. If mega corporations such as Apple have QC issues, what chance does the little guy have?

Plus as you say Russia is far closer than eastern China. Your costs will go through the roof if you have to travel to China every month or two just to consult or hunt for a new factory to manufacture your next batch.