Q: How did you come to start Sourcing Asia?
A: I had a furniture and homewares store in Australia for about four years, I was traveling to Bali every other month sourcing and buying for my shop, doing my own Quality Control on the previous months orders, then overseeing the shipping of that container. I would then head back and unload a container that had arrived, stock the new items in the store then head back to Bali again to do the next container and repeat that over and over. I was so busy working in my business I had no time to work on it. So I figured it was a great opportunity to pair up with a local business partner and start a company doing this. I decided to close my shop when the lease expired and contacted my competitors telling them what my new business plan was, immediately three of my competitors became my first clients as they knew I had a far keener eye for sourcing than they did and they were in the same boat as me, tired from the travel and sourcing work.

Q: Tell me about Andrew?
A: Oh do you have a spare few hours hahaha. In short I have lived here in Bali for eighteen years. I love photography, cooking for others (not for me), a good movie and traveling the world experiencing different cultures and places. Bali is home for me, I am so fortunate to have my life here I absolutely love the culture, the people and this amazing island, but funnily enough I don’t like hot weather. You take the good with the bad right?. People say “oh you are so lucky to be living here” and yes I am, I’m extremely grateful that I have this opportunity in life, but like everywhere, you make of it what you can, it is definitely not a holiday and if I treated it as one I wouldn’t be part of Bali’s most successful sourcing agency.

Q: How hard was it to integrate into a foreign society.
A: I have a fairly easy go lucky attitude and roll with the punches. There has definitely been some very trying moments over the years but the biggest challenge to overcome which I did early in arriving was to learn the local Indonesian language. As my family are from the Netherlands originally I spoke fluent Dutch, and as we know the Dutch colonized Indonesia for many years, the language has about 10,000 words that are the same, this was very helpful to me. Speaking bahasa Indonesia when dealing with suppliers and staff really makes life so much easier and gains you a higher level of respect and understanding in business dealings. I would say I’m about 85-90% proficient now.

Q: What has made Sourcing Asia the name and success that it is now?
A: Oh that’s easy, my amazing team of staff. Without their hard work, dedication and eye for detail we would never be where we are now as one of Bali’s leading sourcing companies. Please meet them all below and see the faces behind the names you may have spoken with already.