Challenge
The buyer had grown from single-category trial imports into a multi-SKU trading model serving Punjab retailers: hardware assortments, home organization products, and seasonal consumer goods bundled into quarterly containers. Growth exposed coordination gaps. Three suppliers shipped to a shared warehouse on different timelines; one factory sent goods before PSI cleared, another used a different export entity on the invoice than the verified license, and the forwarder received packing lists that did not match the consolidated manifest.
The prior quarter's container arrived in Karachi with a twelve-carton shortfall and HS code descriptions that triggered a customs query — costing nine days in storage and broker fees that erased margin on the entire shipment. The owner decided to centralize China-side control under one accountable partner rather than juggling separate inspectors, freight agents, and supplier WeChat groups.
Requirements were explicit: supplier verification on every new factory before deposit, mandatory pre-shipment inspection before goods entered the consolidation warehouse, container loading supervision with seal documentation, and export paperwork aligned to import from China to Pakistan broker expectations before vessel cut-off. The program target was four 40ft FCL departures per year to Karachi with predictable landed cost and zero document mismatches.
Faisalabad wholesale customers expected consistent assortment replenishment every ninety days — a rhythm the buyer could not sustain while firefighting document holds and short counts from unsupervised multi-supplier consolidation.
