How we source
A product earns its place. It doesn't buy one.
Most suppliers will tell you what they sell. Fewer will tell you how they decided to sell it, or what they turned down. This is the whole filter — the test a line has to pass before it reaches a price list, and the paperwork it has to keep passing afterwards.
The filter
Why some consumables work and most don't
The decision isn't really about the product. It's about weight.
A light, moulded or paper item costs very little to ship relative to what's in the box, so what you pay for is the product. A dense or bulky one is the opposite: by the time it has crossed the world, the shipping is most of what you're paying for, and no factory price closes that gap.
That single physical fact decides more than anything a supplier will tell you about a range. It is why a box of gloves and a bag of retractors are not the same kind of problem, even though they sit on the same shelf.
Worth importing
- Light, moulded or paper
- Ships for a small fraction of what's in the box
- Worth bringing in directly
Not worth importing
- Dense or bulky
- Shipping is most of what you pay for
- Better bought closer to home
Lines get turned down on this test, and the ones that do are bought at UK trade instead. That is the filter working, not the sourcing failing.
What we don't import
We don't import everything
We import where importing is genuinely cheaper for you, and buy at UK trade where it isn't.
That costs us more to do than the alternative, and it is a better outcome for you, because the alternative is keeping a second account open for the handful of items we skipped — and a practice with a second account reorders everything from the second account.
So you place one order instead of two. That is the whole argument for carrying a full range rather than only the lines that suit us.
Where importing helps
- Manufacturer, then
- Documentation check, then
- Denova, then
- Practice
Where it doesn't
- Manufacturer / importer, then
- UK trade supplier, then
- Denova, then
- Practice
Before a line is listed
What a line needs before it's listed
A product isn't listed because a factory says it's compliant. It's listed when the paperwork is in hand and has been checked against the standard the product is actually sold under.
01
Find
02
Quote
03
Document
04
Sample
05
Check
06
List
Documentation expiry
A conformity document has an expiry date
This is the part most suppliers don't mention, and it is the reason a documentation pack is worth asking for.
A declaration of conformity is not a permanent fact about a product. It is issued on a date, against a standard, and it lapses. A supplier who filed a PDF once when the line was onboarded and never looked at it again cannot tell you whether the document behind the product in your surgery is still valid today — and at an inspection, that is the question.
We track expiry against the line rather than filing it once. When a document lapses, the line stops being listed until it is replaced.
It is a smaller range and a slower launch than listing everything and filing the paperwork later. It is also the only version of this that survives an inspection.
Documentation pack
Ask for the pack before you order anything
Declaration of conformity, the conformity evidence applicable to that product, and the manufacturer's test reports where the standard requires them — for anything you're considering, before you order. It's free, and you shouldn't have to chase a supplier for paperwork at inspection time.