Underwear Supplier for Stockholm and Nordic Buyers: OEM from China

Sweden is a small market with an outsized influence on Nordic buying, and Stockholm is where much of that buying is done. The brief is shaped by high compliance expectations, a strong sustainability agenda, and a distribution structure that usually funnels Nordic cargo through Gothenburg. Unitex Underwear (Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd.) is a China-based underwear supplier working through long-term BSCI-audited partner factories in the Fujian knitwear corridor — men’s, women’s and kids’ knitted underwear, MOQ 2,000 pcs per style and colour, FOB Xiamen.

The Nordic Brief: Compliance First, Then Price

Nordic buyers — Swedish retail chains, Norwegian and Danish wholesalers, and the buying offices that serve all four countries — tend to lead with compliance and supply-chain transparency, and get to price afterwards. The questions we get most often are about where the cotton comes from, which audit covers the site, what the fabric certificate covers, and whether the label artwork already meets each national language requirement. In a market where the same style is often sold in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland through one regional buying office, the label is the practical complication: four languages, one garment.

There is a real cost saving available here. Multi-language labels with the required national languages on one sewn-in label are routine, and planning them at the sampling stage costs nothing extra. Attempting to add a language later means the whole shipment is either re-labelled or split, which is where Nordic programmes most often lose money.

Note also that Norway is not in the European Union. It has its own customs territory, its own duty and VAT treatment, and a shipment that clears into Sweden does not automatically clear into Norway. If your Nordic programme includes Norway, decide at the brief stage whether you ship one allocation to Gothenburg and onward, or two separate export shipments.

Xiamen to Stockholm: Gothenburg, Rail and the Nordic Feeder

There is no direct flight between Xiamen and Stockholm. Standard routings are one-stop through Helsinki, Copenhagen, Amsterdam or Beijing, with total airport-to-airport time of fifteen to twenty-two hours and door-to-door air freight of roughly five to eight days.

Ocean freight into Scandinavia is a two-stage journey. Main-line services from Xiamen run to the northern European hubs — Rotterdam around 26 to 34 days, Hamburg around 31 to 37 days — and the Nordic leg is a feeder or an on-carriage. Gothenburg, Scandinavia’s largest port, is typically reached in around forty days total from central China including the transshipment, and it acts as the regional distribution hub: the on-dock Railport moves containers by scheduled block train to Stockholm, Malmö, Jönköping and on to Oslo, which cuts drayage cost on Nordic distribution compared with road-only movement. Plan 45 to 55 days door to door for Stockholm on a sea routing.

Because of the transshipment, the single largest source of delay on a Nordic shipment is not the ocean leg but the connection at the hub. If your delivery has a hard date, it is worth paying for a routing with a shorter connection at Rotterdam or Hamburg rather than accepting the cheapest sailing.

Swedish Labelling, VAT and Chemical Rules

Swedish labels follow Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011, with the information in Swedish — the fibre declaration uses the generic names in descending order of weight, and Swedish textile terms differ enough from English that the label cannot simply be re-used from another market. Swedish customs also expects a country-of-origin marking and care instructions following the ISO 3758 symbols, and non-compliant cargo can be held pending corrective labelling, which is exactly the outcome to avoid.

Chemical compliance is taken seriously in Sweden. The Swedish Chemicals Agency works with customs to enforce EU REACH for imported textiles, and garments containing prohibited azo dyes, phthalates, formaldehyde, PFAS compounds or heavy metals above the limits are refused entry. Because underwear is a skin-contact article, ask for the test documentation for your fabric rather than relying on a general compliance statement.

On cost: apparel duty from China is in the region of twelve percent, and Swedish VAT, MOMS, is twenty-five percent on the CIF value. A Swedish VAT-registered business recovers the import VAT in full through the periodic return, so for a B2B buyer the net cost of the VAT is zero but the cash flow timing still matters. A Swedish EORI number is required. Denmark applies a twenty-five percent VAT as well, and Finland twenty-four percent.

What We Do, and What We Do Not Do

Unitex is a sourcing and supply-chain management company working with long-term partner factories in the Fujian knitwear corridor. We handle style development, fabric and trim sourcing, order placement, production follow-up, AQL 2.5 inline and final inspection, and export documentation. Our compliance evidence is deliberately narrow: amfori BSCI audits at the partner sites and OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certification for the materials on your order, with certificate numbers shared at quotation so your team can verify them rather than trust a summary.

We do not own factories, do not hold stock in Scandinavia, and do not act as your importer of record in Sweden or Norway. Goods ship from Xiamen Port on FOB terms, or CIF, CNF or DDP if you prefer. If you need a Nordic buffer warehouse, that is your forwarder or 3PL, and we will work with whichever provider your team uses.

Sourcing Specifications at a Glance

Company	Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd. (厦门甲冠麒贸易有限公司) — sourcing and supply-chain management company, incorporated 2013; in the underwear trade since 2009
Location	Xiamen, Fujian Province, China — Jimei District, Xinglinwan Business Operation Center
Production base	Long-term partner factories across the Xiamen–Quanzhou–Jinjiang knitwear corridor; our own liaison office inside the Jinjiang factory district since 2013
Categories	Men’s / women’s / kids’ knitted underwear, plus size to 5XL, thermal and baselayers, pajamas and sleepwear, sport bras
MOQ	2,000 pcs per style and colour (trial orders from 1,000 pcs on selected styles)
Sampling	7–10 days for counter samples; 12–18 days for fully custom development
Bulk lead	45–60 days after pre-production sample approval
Compliance	BSCI-audited partner factories; OEKO-TEX® Standard 100 certified materials; certificate numbers for the production sites on your order shared at quotation
QC	AQL 2.5 inline and final inspection on every order; shrinkage and spirality tested before bulk cutting; third-party inspection (SGS, Intertek, TÜV) welcome
Port & terms	Xiamen Port — FOB Xiamen standard (EXW Xiamen for Russia/CIS); CIF, CNF or DDP on request
Payment	30% T/T deposit, 70% against copy of B/L; L/C at sight for larger programmes

How to Start a Programme from Stockholm

1. Send your design brief, spec sheet or reference sample — we review and respond within 48 hours
2. Receive fabric swatches, waistband options and a quotation within 3–5 business days
3. Approve counter samples (7–10 days) or full custom development samples (12–18 days)
4. Pre-production sample locks the measurement chart, then bulk runs 45–60 days with AQL 2.5 inline and final inspection
5. Shipment from Xiamen Port on your chosen term, with export documentation handled by our team

Contact us for a free quotation →

Prefer a third-party reference before you write? Our company profile and product showroom are public on Made-in-China.com, and our export shipping records are independently listed on Panjiva. Contact: [email protected] · WhatsApp +86 186 5081 3853.

Other Markets We Cover

This guide is one of a series written for buyers in different markets. The others cover London · Paris · Barcelona · Rome · Frankfurt · Amsterdam · Athens · Moscow · St Petersburg · New York · Santiago de Chile · Lima · Mexico City · Sydney · Melbourne · Italy · the Netherlands · the Nordics · Mexico · the UAE · Canada — each page sets out what that market’s import rules, duty and shipping routes mean for an underwear programme sourced from China.

If you are still weighing up whether to buy through a sourcing company at all, start with the China underwear supplier hub, which sets out how a sourcing company differs from a single factory and what that changes for your programme. Buyers already based in China — Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Hong Kong, Ningbo, Yiwu or Xiamen — are covered by a separate set of city guides linked from the hub.

Published: 2026-10-04 · Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd. — OEM & ODM underwear sourcing partner

Unitex Underwear (Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd.) — OEM/ODM underwear sourcing and supply-chain partner in Xiamen, China; in the trade since 2009, incorporated in 2013. Based in the Xiamen–Quanzhou–Jinjiang knitwear cluster, Fujian Province, south-east China.