Seafood restaurant equipment and supplies
We want to buy different items and equipment in China and need someone to handle the whole process end to end.
28 suppliers in the first shipment. Three containers in total, including a 40 ft reefer
Client location: West Africa
Logistics mode: 3 × FCL — one 40 ft reefer, two 40 ft HQ
Service format: End-to-end
Intro
Two entrepreneurs in West Africa were opening a seafood restaurant. They knew their trade and knew exactly what they needed. The unknown was China. What they were looking for was not an agency with a team of managers, not someone forwarding messages between them and the suppliers — but a private sourcing agent, an actual person on the ground who could organise the whole thing, and bring practical insight along the way.
The plan was simple and right for the job: source the goods in China, purchase a 40 ft refrigerated container, load it with the full list, and then use that same reefer on site as the restaurant’s walk-in cold room.
Product range
-
Kitchen equipment
stoves, grills, fryers, work tables -
Refrigeration
cold rooms, blast freezers, fish tank, chillers & coolers, ice tables. -
Power equipment
diesel generators, voltage stabilizers, solar LED lights. -
Interior items
terrace tiles, décor, CCTV cameras, cashier counter. -
Packaging and daily supplies
packaging machines and materials, scales, printers, consumables, and other day-to-day restaurant supplies.
Service scope
- Source and purchase a 40 ft reefer (on-site condition check)
- Source suppliers and items in China based on the purchase list
- Confirm specifications and visit selected suppliers under the client’s instructions
- Handle payments to multiple suppliers under mixed terms and currencies
- Consolidate goods from multiple suppliers at a warehouse in China
- Perform targeted checks for selected items before shipping
- Book freight and supervise container loading in China
- Manage China export customs clearance and prepare the export document pack
- Issue one commercial invoice in EUR covering all purchases in the consolidated shipment
Outcome
More than 28 suppliers for the first container alone — all sourced and consolidated into a single 40 ft reefer, settled as one invoice in euros, with every supplier payment handled on my side. The same refrigerated container that carried the goods became the restaurant’s first cold room on site, exactly as intended.
The restaurant opened as planned. The client later returned for two more container shipments, each handled under the same structure. The relationship continues today, with me still acting as the client’s agent in China for ongoing purchases.
FAQ
First, I sourced and vetted suppliers and picked a couple of options, then inspected them in person, and moved ahead only once the client approved the right one.
Not all of them. Part of the list I sourced and vetted remotely — the items came from different suppliers in different cities, and visiting each of them wouldn’t have been efficient compared with the order value. But on the expensive equipment — kitchen lines, the cold room, ice machines, the blast freezer — the client asked me to go and see the supplier first. Seven visits in all before anything was confirmed or paid.
The bigger, export-ready suppliers take SWIFT in dollars; the smaller, local ones only deal in RMB and won’t touch a foreign wire. I made all the payments on my side, in whatever each supplier needed, and the client saw one consolidated invoice in euros from my company — paid once.
A full export document pack, all issued from my company: the contract, the commercial invoice, the packing list, and a copy of the bill of lading. That’s what the client needs to clear the container at the destination port.
No. My part ends in China. My responsibility runs through export from China — sourcing, consolidation, checks, loading, and clearing the container through Chinese export customs. From there it moves as FCL to the destination, where the client clears it on their side. So the China end is fully on me; destination clearance and inland delivery are theirs.
Good eye. The first containers shipped while my company was still called Natantech Company Limited, so that’s the shipper on those bills. It was later renamed SinaFirst — same company, same person, just the name — which is why the third bill shows SinaFirst as shipper. There’s a note about the rename on the About page.
There were a few. That’s common reality, actually. For some items I did checks and fixes; the issues were handled on the ground in China. With some suppliers it was easy, with others harder. On one order, for example, the voltage stabilizers got tangled up — not really the factory’s fault, but one manager making a simple thing complicated. From thousands of miles away the client had little chance of sorting it. I dealt with it directly, including going to the supplier in person, and got it back on track. That’s the difference between someone on the ground and hoping it works out.
Anton Gora
Independent sourcing
and purchasing agent in China
and purchasing agent in China
Master’s degree in Sinology
In China since 2005
In China since 2005