Is your Korean supplier a factory or a trading company?
Updated
Many companies that present themselves as manufacturers are intermediaries buying from a factory you will never meet. That is not dishonest and is often efficient — but it changes your leverage, your lead times and who answers when quality goes wrong.
The registration usually tells you
Every Korean business declares an industry classification when it registers: 업태 for the broad sector, 종목 for the specific activity. Both appear on the 사업자등록증.
| Korean | What it means | What they likely are |
|---|---|---|
| 제조업 | Manufacturing | Makes the goods |
| 도매 및 소매업 | Wholesale and retail | Buys and resells |
| 무역업 | Trading, import and export | Intermediary, export-focused |
| 서비스업 | Services | Neither — check what you are buying |
A company presenting itself as a factory while registered only as wholesale is a trading intermediary. Ask about it. The answer is usually mundane — many good suppliers are traders — but you should know which you are dealing with before you commit.
What changes if they are an intermediary
- Quality control is second-hand. Problems get relayed to a factory you have no relationship with, on their schedule
- Lead times depend on someone else’s queue, and your supplier may not know the real one
- Your price includes their margin — sometimes worth it for the coordination
- Audits and site visits may not be theirs to offer, which is often the clearest tell
Where an intermediary is the better choice
Trading companies exist because they are useful. They handle export paperwork, consolidate small orders across factories, speak your language, and absorb coordination a factory will not. For a first small order, a competent trader often beats a factory that has never exported. The mistake is not using one — it is not knowing you are.
Questions that settle it
직접 제조하시는지, 아니면 협력 공장을 통해 생산하시는지 알려주실 수 있을까요?
Could you tell me whether you manufacture directly, or produce through a partner factory?
공장 방문이 가능한지, 가능하다면 주소를 알려주시겠어요?
Would a factory visit be possible, and if so could you provide the address?
The visit question is the sharpest one. A manufacturer answers immediately. An intermediary has to ask someone else, and the delay tells you what the paperwork might not.
Note the registered address is often not where anything is made — see Korean addresses explained.
Check what the business is registered to do.
Check a number