Negotiate from a Position
of Strength.

Before any negotiation begins, we establish your commercial position - understanding your walk-away points, priorities and flexibility across all terms.

• Target Position: Define your ideal outcome across price, payment terms, lead times, minimum order quantities and quality commitments.
• Market Benchmarking: Establish market price benchmarks so you know whether the supplier's opening position is competitive and how much room exists to move.
• Negotiation Strategy: Develop a negotiation strategy tailored to the specific supplier's profile, commercial situation and likely priorities.

We negotiate pricing with a thorough understanding of Chinese manufacturing cost structures, material prices and supplier margin expectations.

• Cost Analysis: Analyse the supplier's likely cost structure to understand where margin exists and what drives their pricing.
• Volume Leverage: Use volume commitments, consolidation opportunities and long-term partnership positioning to achieve better unit pricing.
• Price Protection: Negotiate price stability mechanisms including fixed-price terms, price escalation caps and raw material cost pass-through limits.

Payment terms have a significant impact on your cash flow risk and supplier relationship. We negotiate structures that protect your interests.

• Deposit Structure: Negotiate the appropriate deposit percentage - typically 30% T/T advance with balance against Bill of Lading.
• Letter of Credit: For large orders or new suppliers, negotiate L/C terms that provide payment security for both parties.
• Milestone Payments: For large or complex orders, structure payment milestones tied to production and inspection events.

Contractual quality commitments are only valuable if they include clear, enforceable remedies. We negotiate terms that give you genuine protection.

• Quality Specification Reference: Ensure the production specification and approved samples are formally incorporated by reference into the contract.
• Acceptance Criteria: Define clear, objective acceptance criteria and the process for determining conformance.
• Rejection Rights: Negotiate the right to reject non-conforming goods, return goods at supplier cost and receive credit or replacement.
• Warranty Provisions: Secure appropriate warranty terms covering product defects that manifest after delivery.

Protecting your intellectual property in Chinese manufacturing arrangements requires specific contractual provisions often absent from supplier standard terms.

• Non-Disclosure Agreement: Formal NDA covering product designs, specifications, business information and customer data.
• IP Ownership: Clear contractual statement of IP ownership for all designs, moulds, tooling and software developed for the buyer.
• Exclusivity Provisions: Where appropriate, negotiate exclusivity on specific product designs to prevent the supplier selling identical products to your competitors.
• Tooling Ownership: Clearly establish ownership and control of production moulds and tooling - a common source of disputes.

We review the final contract documentation and manage its execution in both English and Mandarin.

• Contract Review: Review all contract documentation for completeness, consistency with negotiated terms and any supplier-side modifications.
• Bilingual Execution: Manage contract signing in both English and Mandarin, with both versions equally binding.
• Contract Management: Maintain copies of all executed agreements and provide contract management support throughout the relationship.