[stevehertz]

The point is - though it grieves me to say it - you can get stuff manufactured to a good standard in China if all the QA issues are in place. For example, a UK (parent company) person is permanently there on the shop floor sorting out manufacturing problems, QA etc. What happens mainly is that once the decision is made to manufacture in China, the salesmen start to work out how much profit they can make by 'keeping down' the quality (so to speak) instead of keeping it up. And there you go, you get poor tolerances, poor fit, irregular material quality etc etc. From what I know from my old contacts at Crabtree, they are doing it as well as anyone. I have no existing commitment to Crabtree may I add - they sacked me! Redundant actually.