Are you looking overseas to reduce your purchasing costs?

We offer a complete sourcing package which includes our overseas offices, in China and the Czech Republic, employing our own local English speaking staff and a complete sales and technical support team in the UK to ensure that products meet our customers' expectations and requirements. We are also setting up a facility in India which should be completed by the end of 2008.

Our professional team make regular trips to our overseas offices and suppliers to ensure that they are meeting the high standards we have set and audits are carried out to verify product quality.

Why Mini Gears started sourcing overseas

We realised that many companies need to purchase volume parts for a cost that cannot be met by European or other Western suppliers.

In 2002 we set up our first overseas operation in Shanghai, China, with the specific aim of sourcing volume machine parts, gears, castings and forgings, with cost savings delivered direct to our customers to enable them to remain competitive in their respective industries.

The greatest barrier Western companies face when trying to deal with a country like China is the huge cultural differences, the sheer scale of the country, the complexity of their laws regarding entry and trade and the obvious problem of communication as many of the factory employees speak little or no English.

To overcome these problems and offer our customers a solution, we set out to employ local Chinese people and have employed Jason Chen as our Purchasing Manager for our Shanghai office.

• Bachelor degree qualified in materials engineering from Shanghai Jiatong University
  
  
• In depth technical experience
  
  
• Many years experience of sourcing castings, forgings and machined parts for a major China sourcing company
  
  
• Practical experience from time spent as a quality engineer in a large motorcycle/automotive factory
  
  
• Speaks fluent English
  
  
• Many years experience of dealing with western customers' requirements
  
  
• Also Mini Gears has employed many additional engineers and administration staff at its Shanghai office

Our directors visit China on a regular basis and have forged strong partnerships with many Chinese factories

Suppliers are visited by Jason Chen and the directors of Mini Gears who review their capability, quality systems, production equipment, capacity and ability to export to ensure that they meet the high standards on which our customers rely.

In 2007 we set up our second overseas operation in Sumperk, Czech Republic. Geartech s.r.o. specializes in the machining of a wide range of metal components and serves as a warehousing facility, ideally situated in the centre of Europe.

How we manage your project

• Initial enquiry from customer
• Initial discussion with customer on project requirements
• Enquiry sent to relevant overseas office for initial pricing
• Initial quotation sent to customer
• If interest shown, firm quotation submitted after full technical discussion with supplier
• Sample pack produced:
  Mini Gears drawing specification
  Material specification
  Inspection reports
  Agreed quality plan
• Customer places sample order
• Quality checks at completion of samples at overseas office
• Quality verification at Mini Gears UK
• Samples submitted to customer
• Any final issues resolved with customer including supply agreement
• Any final issues resolved with supplier including supply and packaging agreement
• Customer places production orders
• Parts manufactured to agreed specification and quality plan
• Final quality checks at overseas office
• Quality checks at Mini Gears UK
• Delivery of production parts to customer

Benefits to our customers

• Very competitive prices - cost savings delivered straight to your bottom line
• Full project management for your sourcing requirements
• 'One-stop-shop' for sourcing different types of products
• Quality checks at all stages in the process
• UK based technical and logistical support
• Technical support on new product development
• All relevant documentation, including material certs provided in English
• Long established and financially strong company
• Realistic approach and honest feedback on what can be achieved

Product sourced overseas are: