How to verify a Vietnamese manufacturer before your first order.

The short answer. Before your first order, check five things in this order: that the company exists and matches the name on your quotation and bank account, that its certificates are valid at the body that issued them, that its stated capacity matches what can be observed, that it discloses any subcontracting, and that it is not on a sanctions or forced-labour list. You can do most of this from your desk. Keep the site visit for the supplier you are about to pay.

Start with what a deposit actually buys

The moment of maximum risk in a new supplier relationship is not production. It is the deposit: a large share of the order value on a first order, wired internationally, before anything physical exists. Every check below is worth doing in proportion to that number. A verification costs a small part of a first order. After the wire has gone out, the same verification is worth much less.

Step 1: Confirm the entity exists and is what it claims

Vietnam maintains a national business registration portal where an enterprise registration certificate can be checked. What you are looking for:

• Exact name and tax code match. The entity on the quotation, the proforma invoice, and the bank account must be the same entity on the register. A mismatch here is a reason to suspect a trading intermediary.
• Registered business lines. Vietnamese registration lists permitted activities by code. A company registered only for wholesale trade is not a manufacturer, whatever the website says.
• Legal representative. The person named on the register should be the person signing, or should have visibly delegated authority.
• Charter capital and registration date. A company registered four months ago with minimal charter capital, quoting on a container-scale order, warrants more scrutiny, not less.

Free check you can do today: put the registered address into satellite imagery. An industrial-zone address with visible warehousing is consistent with manufacturing. A residential address, a shophouse, or an office tower is consistent with a trading company.

Step 2: Validate every certificate at source

Do not accept a PDF. ISO certificates carry an issuing body and a certificate number that can be checked on that body's register; FSC and PEFC both operate public certificate databases; BSCI and SMETA results sit on Sedex and amfori platforms accessible to members.

Check under the entity's exact registered name and number, not a trading name. A certificate can fail to validate in more ways than outright forgery: it may belong to a different company in the group, it may have expired, or its scope may cover a different product category than the one you are buying.

Step 3: Test stated capacity against observable reality

Stated monthly capacity is a marketing number until someone counts machines. The questions that separate a claim from a fact:

• How many production lines or assembly stations, and how many were running when observed?
• What is the shift structure, and what is current loading: how much of that capacity is already committed to other buyers?
• Is the equipment, whoever owns it, enough to sustain the stated capacity?
• What is the headcount, and does it match a payroll that matches social insurance filings?

A gap between stated and observed capacity is not automatically disqualifying. It becomes serious when the explanation for the gap is subcontracting that was not disclosed.

Step 4: Ask directly about subcontracting

This check is easy to skip, and it matters. Finishing, upholstery, plating, component machining: any of them can be sent to workshops the buyer never sees and never audits.

Undisclosed subcontracting puts a facility outside your audited scope entirely. Whatever social compliance, environmental, or origin assurance you obtained for the primary site simply does not extend to it. Under EUDR and UFLPA, that gap is the compliance exposure, not a technicality.

Ask on site, ask the production manager rather than the sales contact, and ask what happens when an order exceeds normal capacity. The question is ordinary practice for a supplier, not an accusation, so ask it plainly.

Step 5: Screen before you commit, not after

Sanctions and forced-labour screening is fast and cheap. Check the entity, its legal representative, and its parent or affiliated companies where identifiable. For US-bound goods, the UFLPA Entity List is the specific instrument, and an affiliation two steps up an ownership chain is enough to cause a detention.

What you can and cannot establish remotely

A competent desk check (registration, certificates, satellite imagery, screening and a live video walkthrough) will rule out unsuitable suppliers at low cost. That is real value and you can do most of it yourself.

What it will not establish: whether the workshop you were shown on video is the workshop that will make your goods, whether the second facility exists, whether payroll records match timecards, or whether the timber in the yard came from where the paperwork says. Those require someone standing in the building.

The practical rule: do the desk checks first, on every candidate, and reserve a site visit for the supplier you are actually about to commit to. Verifying five suppliers on site wastes money; verifying the one you are about to pay is worth it.

Common questions

How do I check that a Vietnamese company is real? Look it up on Vietnam's national business registration portal and match the exact name and tax code with the quotation, the proforma invoice and the bank account. Check the registered business lines and the legal representative as well.

Can I verify a supplier without visiting the factory? Partly. Registration, certificates, satellite imagery, screening and a live video walkthrough can be done from your desk. Whether the workshop shown on video is the one that will make your goods needs someone in the building.

When is a site visit worth paying for? For the supplier you are about to commit to. Verifying five suppliers on site wastes money; verifying the one you are about to pay is worth it.

Related

• What EUDR Article 9 requires from a Vietnamese supplier
• UFLPA and transshipment risk in Vietnam
• Trading company vs manufacturer in Vietnam: how to tell which one you are dealing with
• Vietnam supplier due diligence checklist
• Red flags when sourcing timber and furniture from Vietnam
• What an independent verifier should not also be selling you

Field Diligence verifies Vietnamese manufacturers against these requirements, on behalf of the buyer and paid only by the buyer. Fixed published price of USD 2,200, agreed before work begins. Start with a free scoping conversation, or see a sample report first.