I started as the buyer everyone warns you about

No factory contacts, no idea what a container really costs to land, taking the first price I was quoted and calling it a win. The first mistakes were expensive and they were mine. Nobody underwrote them.

Then I stopped buying and started building

I went past the trading companies to the plants themselves. I learned what a factory will actually agree to when you are serious: credit terms instead of full prepayment, technicians who fly out with the machines, consignment on a first shipment. None of that is on a price list. It only comes to someone who turns up, asks properly, and comes back.

What it turned into

Cycle Africa Bikes: two showrooms in Nairobi, including the dedicated Giant showroom on Dar es Salaam Road, seven brands on the floor, and a supply chain I run myself from the factory to the till. Every bicycle in that showroom came through a chain I built by hand.

Why I do it for other owners now

Because the expensive part is not finding a factory. It is knowing which one is lying to you, what the true landed cost is before you commit a shilling, and how to structure it so the factory has a reason to care after the first container. That knowledge only exists in people who have paid for it.

So I work with a small number of owners who have a real market and the capital ready, and I build the China side of their business the way I built my own. Then I stay in as a partner. I do not hand you a contact and leave — my money is in it with yours, and my share is a named line on an invoice you can read.

And it runs the other way too

Chinese factories and brands who want Africa have the same problem in reverse: they cannot tell a serious partner from a trading enquiry. I hold the local licence, build the market and run it. Nairobi and Shenzhen, both ends, one person accountable.