Global Sourcing
How to find a manufacturer for your product
Finding a factory is easy. Finding one that can build your product to a consistent standard, at a workable volume, and still answer the phone in year two is the actual job. It is a qualification process, not a search.
Write the specification before you contact anyone
A factory quotes what it reads. Vague briefs produce optimistic prices that change later. A usable specification covers dimensions and tolerances, materials and finishes, performance requirements, packaging, labelling, applicable standards and certifications, and the acceptance criteria you will inspect against.
- Drawings or CAD, with critical dimensions marked
- Material and finish callouts, not adjectives
- Target volumes: first order and annual forecast
- Compliance and certification requirements for your markets
- Packaging, barcodes and labelling
Build a candidate list, then shorten it hard
Sources include trade platforms, industry trade shows, sourcing agents, and referrals from brands making adjacent products. Aim for a longlist, then qualify down to two or three who genuinely make your product category rather than merely accepting your order.
- Do they make this product type today, for whom?
- Are they the factory or a trading company? Both can work — know which
- Audit reports, certifications and export experience
- Capacity and lead times against your forecast
- Communication quality — it predicts everything later
Understand tooling, MOQs and unit price together
Unit price alone is misleading. Tooling and mould costs, minimum order quantities, packaging setup and freight all change the landed cost per unit dramatically at low volumes. Ask who owns the tooling — it matters if you ever want to move production.
Samples, then pre-production, then production
Never skip stages. Approve a sample against your written criteria, then a pre-production sample from production tooling and materials, then inspect the first production run. Approvals should be documented with photographs and measurements, not agreed in a chat thread.
- Golden sample retained by both parties
- Inline inspection for long runs
- Pre-shipment inspection with a defined sampling standard
- Clear written procedure for rejects and rework
Protect the design and the relationship
Put agreements in writing: confidentiality, tooling ownership, quality standards, payment milestones and remedies. Register the intellectual property you can in the markets that matter to you, and take specific legal advice for your situation rather than relying on template documents alone.
Or use an established network
Global Sourcing exists because this process is slow to run from scratch. We work with vetted manufacturing partners across categories, coordinate specification, sampling, quality control and freight, and can act as the single point of contact from brief to delivered stock — internationally, not just in New Zealand.