Robinson Business Service introduces businesses around the world directly to manufacturers in China. Introductions come through local government and relationships built on the ground since 2008, not through online marketplaces. Our core presence is in Hunan Province, and from there we reach the regions that specialise in what you need. You get three or more competing factory quotes against your own specification, with standards verified and inspection arranged before anything ships.
Most businesses buying from China are two or three margins away from the factory. The problem is not finding a supplier. It is knowing which one is real, and making them compete.
Many "manufacturers" on sourcing platforms are trading companies adding 20 to 40 percent before the goods leave China. We go to the factory through people who already know it, and the price you see is the factory's own.
Every brief goes to at least three suitable manufacturers who know they are being compared for a real overseas project. That changes how they price, and how seriously they treat delivery.
China's provincial and municipal governments actively support export manufacturers. Our introductions come through local commerce bureaus, which means the factories you meet are vetted locally and have a reason to perform.
Specification, standards, samples, inspection and contract terms are managed by an Irish businessman who has done business on the ground in China since 2008 and knows what goes wrong. Your procurement team deals with the factory directly once introduced, with us alongside.
Every region in China specialises in something. We start from Hunan, where our presence is strongest, and go to wherever a category is made best.
Fabricated structural steel, light-gauge steel framing and prefabricated steel building systems for residential and commercial projects, quoted against the standards your market requires, whether EN, AS/NZS, ASTM or others.
For developers and contractorsAluminium and uPVC windows and doors, cladding, roofing and finishes, with test reports and certification checked at the factory before quotation.
For builders and merchantsChina's industrial provinces, Hunan among them, are home to the country's construction-machinery clusters and steel industry. Components, equipment and fabricated parts to drawing or sample.
For manufacturers and plant operatorsYour specification, your branding. Factory selection, sample management and a contract that protects your design and your delivery date.
For brands and product ownersStock lines bought regularly where a direct factory relationship pays back on every shipment, not just the first.
For importers and distributorsSend a short brief. If China is not the right place for what you need, or a different region is, we will tell you.
Ask the questionFour steps. You stay in control of the decision and the contract at every one of them.
Product, quantity, drawings or samples, the standards it must meet, and your timeline. A page is enough to start.
The brief goes to the local commerce bureau and our own contacts in the region that specialises in your product, who identify manufacturers with the right capability and export record.
At least three manufacturers quote against your specification. You receive the quotes, certification documents and samples side by side, with our notes on each.
Your team contracts with the factory you choose. We arrange accredited third-party inspection before shipment and coordinate with your freight forwarder through to delivery.
Every region in China specialises: electronics and consumer goods on the coast, furniture in Foshan, machinery and steel in the industrial centre. We start from Hunan, where our relationships are deepest, and follow the product to wherever it is made best.
Hunan itself is a strong place to start. Most Western buyers source from the coast and pay coastal prices; Hunan sits in central China with a lower cost base, high-speed rail from Changsha to every major industrial city, and a Yangtze River port at Yueyang, so heavy and bulky goods can move by water to Shanghai rather than by road.
Its industry is built around engineering machinery, steel and construction materials. When a brief calls for something another province does better, the same approach applies there: a local introduction, competing quotes, and inspection before shipment.
Robinson Business Service is built on eighteen years of buying from China directly, not through a platform.
Paul Robinson has been doing business on the ground in China since 2008, visiting factories, negotiating directly with owners and managing production and shipping for his own Irish company. Over that time hundreds of thousands of products have shipped from Chinese factories to Ireland on his account, which is the kind of experience you only get by having your own money on the line.
Those years also built lasting relationships in Yueyang, Hunan, which have grown into a network across the city's business community and local government. That is the asset. Not a warehouse, not a catalogue, but the ability to walk into a Hunan factory introduced by someone the owner already trusts, with the local Bureau of Commerce behind the enquiry. Factories behave differently when the introduction comes that way.
We are deliberately small. Paul handles every brief personally, and we take on only the projects where a direct Hunan relationship clearly beats what you could do yourself.
An accredited independent inspection company, such as SGS, Bureau Veritas or TÜV, appointed on your behalf and reporting to you. We arrange it and are present where useful, but the inspection is independent of us and of the factory.
The factory. We introduce, compare and coordinate; your company signs the supply contract directly with the manufacturer, which keeps the legal relationship clean and the pricing transparent.
By a fee agreed with you before any factory is approached, usually a percentage of the supply contract. We do not take hidden margin from the factory side, and we will say so in writing.
The good ones already export and hold the relevant test reports and certification. Checking that is part of the quotation stage, not something discovered at customs. If a factory cannot evidence the standard you need, it does not make the shortlist.
Minimums are set by each factory and vary by product. As a rule, direct sourcing pays back from a single container upward, and the saving grows with repeat orders.
Tell us what you need, how much, to what standard and by when. You will hear back from Paul directly, with an honest view on whether China is the right place to buy it, and which part of it.