metier
HOW WE WORK

From idea to your dock in five steps

The same process runs whether the order is one pallet or a recurring program. You see every gate, and nothing passes one without your approval.

1
Brief
Tell us the product, target price, quantity, and the standard it must meet. A drawing or sample helps, but a short description is enough to start.
2
Source
Our China team shortlists factories, vets them, negotiates pricing, and confirms the duty treatment for your destination market before you commit. The quote shows the factory price and our fee as separate lines.
3
Sample
Samples are inspected against your specification before production begins. Nothing moves forward without your written approval.
4
Produce
Production runs under our watch, with progress reported as it happens. Inspection runs at three set gates, and unannounced spot checks land in between.
BEFORE
Approved sample sets the standard; raw-material sources approved and incoming material inspected
DURING
In-process checks while production runs
AFTER
Pre-shipment inspection on every order
Some spot checks are random. Others are triggered by something we saw during a visit. Nothing ships on a failed result.
5
Deliver
We book the freight, clear customs, and send tracking and certificates. You receive one invoice from Metier for the whole job.
QUALITY METHOD

What we actually check

Two documents anchor every engagement: the factory audit before we place work, and the pre-shipment inspection before goods leave. Here is what each covers.

Factory Audit
  • Legal registration, ownership, and financial standing
  • Production capability against your product's requirements
  • Quality system: procedures, records, calibration, traceability
  • Materials sourcing and sub-supplier control
  • Working conditions and site observations
  • Capacity, current workload, and realistic lead times
Audits are conducted by our own team, with independent certified auditors engaged where a customer's industry requires it. Unannounced follow-up visits are part of the method.
Pre-Shipment Inspection
  • Quantity count against the purchase order
  • Dimensional and functional checks against the approved sample
  • Workmanship review against an agreed defect classification
  • Packaging, labeling, and carton drop-readiness
  • Marking and documentation required by the destination market
  • Photographic record tied to the order number
Run on every order before it leaves the factory. Goods that fail don't ship. You decide between rework, replacement, or rejection with the findings in front of you.
What we ask a factory for

Price is the last thing we agree, not the first. Before that we want to know who actually makes the goods, whether they can produce the documentation your market will ask for, and what happens if a batch is wrong.

Where a product has to meet a recognised standard, we go further. We want current certification, the test reports behind it, and evidence the maker carries product liability cover. A factory that can't produce those is the wrong factory for that product, whatever the quotation says.

Who carries what

We take responsibility for the order. If goods arrive wrong, short, damaged or off-specification, that's our invoice and we deal with it.

Responsibility for the product itself in your market sits with you as the importer, along with registration, labelling and whatever your regulator requires. We'll tell you what applies and make sure your supplier can produce the paperwork. We won't pretend that being your sourcing partner makes us the party your regulator is looking for.

TOOLING, IP & CONFIDENTIALITY

The questions your onboarding team will ask

Corporate buyers qualify suppliers through a process. Here's where we stand on the usual items, so diligence doesn't stall on page one.

NDA first. A confidentiality agreement is in place before your drawings or specifications are shared with anyone.
Your tooling is yours. Tooling you pay for belongs to you. It's stated in the order, and it moves when you say so.
Your design is yours. Custom products developed on your brief belong to you, including the intellectual property.
Quality agreement. Available where your quality system requires one.
Labour standards. Suppliers sign our code of conduct, and we don't place work with factories that fail it.
Insurance. Certificates of insurance are available on request.
SYSTEMS & TERMS

Working with your systems

Most customers start with email and a spreadsheet. For a few orders a month that works, and we won't push you to change it.

Once volume is regular, we can connect to your store or your ERP so orders arrive without anyone typing them in twice. We run Odoo, and connectors are available for Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, Magento, PrestaShop, eBay and Etsy. Anything else with an API can be connected with some work, and larger buyers running EDI can send purchase orders that way. We set this up per customer as part of onboarding.

Once it's running, you watch each order move: confirmed, in production, inspected, shipped, cleared, delivered, with the documents attached at each stage. A dashboard sits on top of the orders: lead times, on-time delivery, inspection results, and landed cost, so you can see how the whole programme is performing, not just where one order is.

You decide what we can see. Some partners share their customer list and their retail pricing so we can ship direct to the end buyer. Others keep both to themselves and we ship to their warehouse. Either works, and you can change your mind later.

Your data stays yours

Ask us and we'll hand over your order history, your product data, your supplier documentation and your inspection records in a format you can use somewhere else. There's no exclusivity clause, no notice penalty and no exit fee.

If our service stops being worth what we charge, we'd rather you tell us than feel stuck.

We'll tell you to order less

New importers usually plan a bigger first order than they should. More SKUs, deeper quantities, a full range before anyone has bought anything.

We earn on what you buy, so this runs against our interest and we'll say it anyway. Start with the smallest set that tells you what sells, then reorder quickly on whatever moves.

Tell us what you need to import.

Whether it's a product idea, a supplier problem, or a full supply chain to rebuild, start with an email. We reply within one business day.

[email protected]