About us

Background

Northbay Trading Co., Ltd. was incorporated in Hong Kong in 2016. The founders had spent the previous decade in buying offices of European retailers, and set the company up to handle the part of the job that those offices usually leave to the supplier — checking the factory rather than trusting it.

We are deliberately small. There are nine of us: four in sourcing, three in quality control and two handling documentation and freight. Keeping the team at this size means the person who quotes your order is the same person who inspects it.

How we are organised

Hong Kong office	Commercial and administrative functions, customer accounts, invoicing and export documentation
Dongguan warehouse	Consolidation, re-packing, pre-shipment inspection and short-term storage
Factory network	Around forty active suppliers, mainly in Dongguan, Shenzhen, Foshan and Zhongshan

What we are careful about

• One factory per item. We do not spread a single order across several suppliers to shave the price, because quality drifts between them.
• Inspection before balance payment. The final 70% is only invoiced after our own QC staff have signed off the goods.
• Written quotations. Price, tolerance, packing and delivery date are confirmed in writing before production starts, so there is no argument later about what was agreed.
• No sub-supplying. If we cannot make an item ourselves through our network, we say so rather than passing the enquiry on to another trading company.

Timeline

2016	Company incorporated in Hong Kong; first customers in Germany and the Netherlands
2018	Warehouse and inspection room opened in Dongguan
2020	Shift towards consolidated shipments as buyers reduced order sizes
2023	Packaging and display design brought in-house
2026	Eighteen export markets; roughly forty active factory partners

Banking and registration

We are registered in Hong Kong and bank with a licensed bank in the same jurisdiction. Company registration documents, bank details and references are provided with the proforma invoice on the first order — we do not send them in advance of an enquiry, and we never change bank details by email without a phone confirmation.

Please note: we are a trading company, not a manufacturer. We do not operate our own production lines and we do not sell to consumers.