Who sees what in a Metier order

A sourcing order involves at least four parties: the factory, us, you, and your customers. Each needs different information, and some of it should not travel.

This page sets out who sees what. It is our policy rather than a general guide, and we publish it so you can hold us to it.

You see everything

As our customer you see the factory invoice, the freight cost, the inspection cost, and our fee as a separate line.

Our fee is agreed before an order goes in. It does not change afterwards, and there is no second margin coming to us from anywhere else. We take no commission or rebate from a factory, and we do not mark up freight or inspection and present it as cost.

You can check this against the documents that travel with your order. That is the point of doing it this way.

If we ever cannot show you a cost, we will tell you why rather than absorbing it quietly into a unit price.

Your customers do not learn the factory or its price

Goods can ship from our consolidation point rather than from the factory. Cartons and documents in your customer's hands carry your details, not the factory's.

Your cost is your business. Nothing we send downstream reveals what you paid or who made the goods.

The factory does not learn your customers

Where we ship direct to your buyers on your behalf, the factory does not receive that list. They ship to us.

This matters more than most first-time importers expect. A factory that has your customer list has the option of approaching them, and some will.

Customs receives the truth, always

This is the boundary, and it does not move.

Every customs authority receives true values, true origin, and an accurate description of the goods. We do not undervalue invoices, we do not describe goods as something else, and we do not declare an origin the goods do not have.

If a supplier or a customer asks us to do any of those things, we decline and we say why. There is a separate guide on what actually changes country of origin, which explains why the shortcuts people are offered do not work.

Confidentiality between commercial parties and honesty toward a customs authority are different things. We hold both.

You decide what we see

Some partners share their customer list and their retail pricing, because they want us to ship direct to the end buyer and to plan replenishment. Others share neither and we ship to their warehouse.

Both work. You choose, you can change your mind later, and we do not treat the second option as a lesser relationship.

We do not ask for information we do not need to run your orders.

The exception: regulated buyers

If you sell into a regulated industry, your own quality system may require you to know and qualify the manufacturer. Medical device, aerospace and automotive quality systems generally do not allow an unqualified supplier in the chain, and your auditors will ask.

In that situation we disclose the factory to you, because withholding it would make it impossible for you to meet your obligations. We will tell you at the outset when we think this applies to your product.

Your data stays yours

Ask us and we will hand over your order history, your product data, your supplier documentation and your inspection records in a format you can use elsewhere. There is no exclusivity clause, no notice period penalty and no exit fee.

If our service stops being worth what we charge, we would rather you told us than felt stuck.

What we will not do

• Take a commission or rebate from a factory on your order
• Mark up a third-party cost and present it as the cost
• Show a customs authority a value or an origin that is not true
• Pass your customer list to a factory
• Pass your cost to your customers
• Hold your data to make leaving difficult

Why we publish this

Most of the doubts a new importer has about working through an intermediary come down to one question: what is happening that I cannot see.

Writing the answer down does not prove it. It does make it checkable, and it gives you something specific to point at if we ever fall short of it.

Verified August 2026. Next review February 2027.