European warehouse.
Asian shelf.
I buy A-brand consumer goods in Europe and land them in Asia — personal care, laundry, blades, household paper — with documented origin, one landed cost per pallet, and no surprises at customs.
A trading desk that answers its own email.
I source European A-brand consumer goods for Asian retail. The allocation, the origin file, the freight and the landed cost sit with one person — from the first enquiry to the pallet arriving — so there is no desk between the buyer and the answer.
I came into this from the European wholesale side and took a senior trading seat within my first year in the Asian market, then built and led the team that runs that business: more than €10 million of goods sold in a single year, most of it repeat business through online platforms and distributors rather than one-off clearance.
Most of the work is unglamorous. Checking the invoice matches the lot. Confirming the label is legal where it is going. Booking the container for the week the buyer's shelf needs it, not the week the freight is cheapest. That is what earns the reorder.
Rotterdam · Shanghai · Singapore
What the goods actually travel through
Cargo is not abstract. It is a terminal in Rotterdam, six weeks of ocean, a transshipment hub, a customs broker at destination, and a pallet check before anything reaches a shelf.
Photographs: Wikimedia Commons — Rotterdam © Frans Berkelaar (CC BY 2.0), vessel © Petar Milošević (CC BY-SA 4.0), Singapore © Noel Reynolds (CC BY 2.0), Yangshan © Gmbsfd (CC BY-SA 4.0), warehouse © Nick Saltmarsh (CC BY 2.0). Illustrative of the route, not of my shipments.
The work is not the product. It is the file behind it.
Anyone can quote a price. What a buyer actually needs is proof that the goods are authentic, the origin is documented, and the landed cost holds at the port.
Allocation, not browsing
Access to European wholesale stock and surplus lots in the categories Asian retail actually reorders. Volume is confirmed before it is promised.
The origin file
Invoices, batch and lot references, EEA origin documentation, and re-labelling where the destination market requires it. The paperwork travels with the pallet.
One landed number
Ex-works, freight, duty, clearing and last-mile in a single quote — so margin is decided before the container is booked, not after.
Categories I move
Chosen for repeat purchase and brand loyalty in Asian retail — not for one-off clearance.
German-engineered detergents
Concentrated laundry liquids, pods and specialty cleaners where formulation quality is the selling point in-market.
reorder driver: consumer trust in the originBlades and shaving systems
Cartridge systems and disposables, where the value sits in the consumable and the counterfeits are the real competitor.
reorder driver: blade fitment lock-inToothpaste & powered brushes
High-frequency, high-trust categories where a single counterfeit damages the whole shelf relationship.
reorder driver: monthly replenishmentDiapers, wipes, skin care
Parents pay for provenance. Origin documentation matters more here than in any other category I handle.
reorder driver: safety-led purchaseTissue, kitchen roll, wet wipes
Heavy, low-value-per-kilo goods where the whole margin is decided by container fill and consolidation.
reorder driver: volume & fill rateChocolate & seasonal candy
Gifting-led, strongly seasonal, and highly sensitive to shelf-life on arrival.
reorder driver: seasonal calendarThe trade, in numbers
How a category is assessed before a single pallet is committed: what moves, in what lot size, at what price band, into which channel.
| Category | Origin | Typical lot | EU wholesale | Asia retail index | Channel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laundry detergent concentrated liquid / pods |
DE · NL | 1 pallet 48–60 ctns |
index 100 | 142–168 | Online marketplace · supermarket |
| Shaving systems cartridges / disposables |
DE · UK · PL | 1 pallet blister packs |
index 100 | 155–190 | Online · pharmacy chain |
| Oral care toothpaste / brushes |
DE · FR | 1 pallet mixed SKU |
index 100 | 135–160 | Hypermarket · distributor |
| Household paper tissue / kitchen roll |
DE · IT | 40 ft container fill-optimised |
index 100 | 128–145 | Distributor · B2B |
| Confectionery seasonal gifting |
DE · BE · IT | part pallet season-windowed |
index 100 | 150–185 | Online · gifting retail |
Index reads as: European wholesale price = 100. The bands show the retail index a category has to clear in-market for the exercise to make sense once freight, duty and clearing are loaded on top. These are illustrative structure, not prices — real figures are quoted per request.
How a deal runs
Five steps, and the buyer sees the same file at every one of them.
1 · Brief
Category, volume, destination, Incoterm, delivery window. A quote is impossible without these five, which is why I ask for them up front.
2 · Allocation
Stock confirmed at European wholesale level, with lot references and a realistic ship window — not a promise made against stock that may not exist.
3 · Origin file
Invoices, batch data and EEA origin documentation assembled and checked before the goods move.
4 · Consolidation
Repacking, re-labelling and container optimisation where the destination market requires it.
5 · Landed cost
One number covering goods, freight, duty and clearing. If the number does not work, the deal does not ship.
Send the five fields. I will send a landed cost.
Enquiries are answered personally. For anything urgent, a call is usually faster than an email thread.