China sourcer is flying

With offices in Frome, Somerset, as well as Guangzhou in China and Maine in the USA, ChinaSavvy specialises in providing an independent outsourcing service to manufacturing companies "who want to make top quality products but at a competitive price". The company claims that for many firms this means having key engineering components produced in China; an activity that it says can be fraught with all sorts of problems, not least keeping close control over quality. "While the recession has seen several of ChinaSavvy's competitors go out of business it has managed to grow because it provides a one-stop-shop service that includes producing original drawings, casting, forging, CNC machining, and quality checking using co-ordinate measuring machines," claims the company's handout. Managing director Christopher Devereux, who is also the vice-chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in Guangzhou, says: "In China tens of thousands of manufacturing companies have gone bankrupt so it's essential that manufacturers feel confident that they are outsourcing their work to a company that will be in business for some time. "The UK is littered with companies who have tried to outsource but had their fingers burned because they didn't have someone on the ground who knew what they were doing," he says. "The reason we're not only surviving but expanding at a rapid rate is that we are unique in outsourcing – we are a British-owned outfit but we have created an unrivalled network of reliable production companies with the sharpest possible focus on quality. Our quality assurance and our engineering departments works hand in hand to ensure western quality products. We understand about quality 'fade' and we make sure it doesn't happen with any products we handle."