What we do is simple… we work as a sourcing agent and assist our clients in locating, choosing and negotiating products. We are dedicated to those categories which we have strengths in food products, hard lines and soft lines. We have developed a strong vendor basis especially in China and Bangladesh.
Our main objective is to ensure that our clients get the lowest possible price for their desired quality grade. We source vendors, certify factories and products, monitor production and inspect final goods. We can oversee logistics and shipping to the port of destination. We have been a part of this industry since the late ’90s…
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We started working as the sourcing agent for our parent company in the late ’90s by opening a small office in Bangkok. Over the years, we opened (and sometimes re-organised) offices in Hong-Kong, then in Mainland China, then in Vietnam, Bangladesh, India and South America…
Our business scope quickly evolved: from being a simple interface between foreign buyers and local vendors, to assisting clients in product development, quality assurance and quality control programs and offering logistics and consolidation services.
Today we serve multiple clients in Europe, the Americas and Asia, including most banners from Groupe Casino,a world leading retailer.
SOURCING FROM ASIA IS EASIER
Sourcing from Asia is easier because Asia is no longer the “Wild East”. Over time, Asia-based vendors have improved their grasp of the client base, their product/market fit, understanding of product quality grading and overall communications.
BUT SUPPLY CHAINS ARE MORE COMPLEX
Despite these improvements, the increasing complexity of retailer supply chains ― involving multiple steps, compliance requirements, processes and milestones to be achieved over an ever-contracting product life cycle ― presents constant challenges.
INADEQUATE LEGACY SOURCING ORGANIZATIONS
Small or integrated sourcing structures are not at an adequate scale nor can they maintain an overall market vision.
Larger sourcing agents evolve into exceedingly sophisticated high-cost organizations, adding multiple “value-added” services, that tally up to increased acquisition costs, when not directly competing with their clients.
HOW WE BRING VALUE
We bring value to companies that aim to increase their margins by working directly with Asia-based vendors for product lines they currently source from importers or wholesalers or that are seeking to benchmark, challenge or complement their agents or internal sourcing department along the supply chain in terms of innovation, quality, acquisition cost, origin, or processing speed.
Food Products
Hard Lines
Soft Lines
East Asia
China is viewed as a critical supply base. Since there is no substitute for having capable people on the ground, we’re headquartered in Hong Kong and located some of our central function teams in Guangzhou.
Western Europe
France is not only the motherland of our parent company – Groupe Casino, but also a focal point for our food product sourcing in European countries, Africa continent and Mediterranean regions.
South Asia
By evaluating other sourcing options in Asia, we established footholds in Bangladesh (the next hotspot in apparel sourcing) and in Thailand (a hub rich with opportunities forfood sourcing across Southeast Asia).
South America
To have a synergistic effect, we make the suppliers from the Americas an integral part of the food and beverage product development system by coordinating with our offices in Colombia and Brazil.
Simple and Lean
Our organization is simple and lean, we permanently work on reducing our costs… a legacy of our roots as a retailer. We are the sourcing arm of Casino Group, a retailer with yearly sales of over US$60 billion.
Obsessively Focused
We focus exclusively on categories for which we have extensive product expertise, several years of experience and dependable vendor portfolios based in sourcing countries where we maintain an active office.
Totally Transparent
We are totally transparent with respect to our activities, resources and the vendors or factories with which we work. We qualify technically these factories and audit them for social and environmental compliance.
Sourcing & Order Execution
We concentrate exclusively on sourcing & order execution which is our forte: we let client’s in-house designers, style specialists and creative teams do their work. We work with them, we don’t compete with them.
Consolidating Buying Power
We employ our annual sourcing volume (US$350 million) as a lever to negotiate lower price for all clients. We consolidate purchases of various clients among a few vendors for each category.
Highly Accountable
We maintain a nimble and flexible organization to meet our clients changing needs, they interact with clearly identified, highly accountable counterparts. We commit and we deliver on quality level and shipment dates.
We have come a long way from a small office in Bangkok, then moved into our headquarters in Hong Kong in 1998. We operated under the name “Opera Asia Limited” for Hardlines and Softlines product sourcing and with another office in Nanning, China for food product sourcing.
Following partnership separation agreement, we changed name to “EMC Distribution Ltd. (European Merchandise Casino)” and went on expanding our own sourcing network by opening offices in Hangzhou, India, Bangladesh and Morocco.
We further increased sourcing volume in China by opening a branch office in Guangzhou focusing on Hardlines product sourcing and another office for ready-made garment sourcing in Shanghai.
To more accurately reflect our business activities, we re-branded and renamed to “Casino Global Sourcing”. The ERP system “Utrade” was also implemented to streamline business processes and data. It is not only used across the entire organization, but also by some of the business units within Groupe Casino and freight forwarders.
In an effort to rationalize resources and optimize capacity, we restructured all sourcing office activities by concentrating only on our footholds in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Bangladesh, Thailand and our representative offices in Colombia, France and Brazil.
Godirek showcases about 10,000 electronics and home products with the aim of providing product ideas for any sellers to private label. It also offers private labeling tips, product and manufacturer sourcing strategies as well as global e-commerce trends.
By implementing an efficient and time saving quality management system and work processes across the Hardlines division, we achieved ISO 9001 certification.
MERCHANDISING
100 Gurus
Scout suppliers, manage orders, source and develop new product ranges and design briefs
QUALITY ASSURANCE
40 Jedi
Colombia Casinos
Audit suppliers, monitor verification procedures, drive continuous improvement of suppliers
SUPPLY CHAIN
25 Wizards
Direct, optimize and coordinate full order cycle; strategically plan and manage logistic workflows
SUPPORT
35 Ninjas
Monitor operational performance, enhance human resources, maintain financial security
We take the headache out of sourcing
Join 30 world leading retailers who’ve chosen us for sourcing products today
Office Location
9/F Guardian House Wanchai HK
Call Us
Tel: (852) 2730 1111
Email Address
Working Hours
Mon-Fri 10:00-7:00 (GMT+8)
Pablo Escobar's original four hippos in Colombia, could number 1,400 by 2034
Hippopotamuses are increasing in Colombia despite being an alien species in South America. Their existence in the country began with the import of four individuals by drug lord Pablo Escobar. The four hippopotamuses later escaped into the wild.
In January, biologists and other experts who fear the animals may adversely affect the ecosystem pointed out the need to cull the animals in an academic report, but there have been controversies around the issue.
Hippopotamuses are native to Sub-Saharan Africa. But according to the report carried in academic journal Biological Conservation, which was written by biologists mainly based in Colombia, about 80 hippopotamuses currently reside in the Magdalena River, which flows through the northwest of the country.
The situation began in the 1980s when Pablo Escobar established a private zoo in Puerto Triunfo, a town along the river. Escobar was the leader of the Medellin Cartel, which was said to be the world’s largest narcotics syndicate.
In those days, Escobar had such enormous financial power that he appeared on a list of the world’s billionaires put out by U.S. economic magazine Forbes.
At the zoo, Escobar kept animals that had been illegally imported. Among the animals, there were four hippopotamuses – one male and three females – that had been brought over from U.S. zoos.
Escobar was shot to death in Colombia by security troops in December 1993. The Colombian authorities confiscated his weapons and assets, and transferred the animals to other zoos.
Cartagena Colombia Casino
But the four hippopotamuses were left unattended partly because transportation costs were high. As they have no natural enemies among other animals in the area, the freed mammals increased in number.
According to the academic report, the hippopotamus population will increase to about 1,400 by around 2034.
The biologists warn that the animals will endanger native species, such as the manatee, and that a predicted change in water quality will affect local fisheries.