How to Check a Wholesale Perfume Supplier in the UK

Before paying a new fragrance supplier, you want reasonable confidence that you are dealing with the business you think you are, and that the stock will be as described. Free public tools, sensible questions and a careful first delivery can tell you a great deal, but not everything.

This guide explains what each common check establishes, what it does not, and how to combine them into a proportionate judgement: reconcile information from different sources, then weigh what you have found as a whole.

We are a UK fragrance wholesaler ourselves, so this is not an independent guide. It is the process we would want a new trade customer to follow with any supplier, including us. For minimum orders, pricing and first-order planning, see our wider guide to buying wholesale perfume in the UK.

What supplier checks can, and cannot, tell you

Check	What it can tell you	What it cannot tell you
Companies House search	Whether a registered company exists; its legal name, number, status, registered office, filing dates and officers	Whether the business you are dealing with is that company, or whether it trades honestly or sells genuine stock
HMRC VAT number check	Whether a VAT number is valid, and the name and address it is registered to	Whether the supplier is legitimate or its stock is authentic
Invoice	Who supplied the goods, what was sold, when and at what price	That the products are authentic
Confirmation of Payee	Whether the name you entered matches the name on the account you are paying	Whether the business behind that account is legitimate
Product, EAN, batch code and label checks	Whether what arrived matches what was invoiced, and whether anything is inconsistent	That a fragrance is genuine

Supplier due diligence reduces the risk of dealing with the wrong business, paying the wrong account or buying on unclear terms. Product authentication is a different question, and no buyer-side checklist can settle it conclusively. Good due diligence makes problems less likely and easier to resolve, but it is not a certificate.

Confirm who you are actually buying from

A supplier's website name is often a trading name, and the legal entity behind it may be called something else. That is normal, but you need to know which business you would be contracting with and paying.

If the supplier is a limited company

Limited companies and limited liability partnerships appear on the public register. You can search Companies House free of charge by name or number. The record shows:

• the legal name and company number;
• whether the company is active, dissolved or subject to insolvency proceedings;
• the registered office address;
• filing dates for accounts and confirmation statements, including whether anything is shown as overdue;
• current and past officers.

Check that the name and number match the website and invoices, and that the company is active if the seller says it trades through it. The registered office is the company's official address for statutory post; it may be a home, an accountant's or a service address, which on its own is not a concern. Companies House says its service is not intended to be comprehensive and that it cannot always review every document in detail, so treat the register as evidence of registered company facts, not a verdict on how a business trades.

If the supplier charges VAT

A supplier that charges VAT should show its VAT number on its invoices. HMRC's free Check a UK VAT number service confirms whether a number is valid and shows the name and address it is registered to. You need the number itself, because the service cannot search by business name. The useful question is whether the registered name matches the business you are dealing with; a valid number registered to a different business needs an explanation before you go further.

Sole traders, partnerships and businesses that are not VAT registered

Sole traders and ordinary partnerships register with HMRC, not Companies House, so they will not appear on the company register, and smaller businesses may trade below the VAT registration threshold. None of this is a warning sign. What matters is that the business is identifiable, reachable and able to provide proper purchase documentation, and that a supplier that is not VAT registered is not charging you VAT.

Make the names line up

This is the heart of the process. Compare the names you see in four places:

• the website or catalogue;
• the invoice or pro-forma;
• the VAT record, if VAT is charged;
• the name on the bank account you are asked to pay.

Usually these match, or differ in an obvious way, such as a trading name alongside a company name. If they do not, ask for a written explanation before paying.

Contact details: consistency matters more than appearances

A polished website is easy to build, and a modest one is not a warning sign. Check instead that the business can be reached, that its contact details are consistent across its website, emails and documents, and that you get sensible answers to reasonable questions.

Avoid simple rules. Free email addresses, mobile numbers and home-based businesses are common among legitimate small traders and are not evidence of wrongdoing. What matters is whether the details fit together: for example, emails should keep coming from the address you were given at the start.

What paperwork should you expect?

For a trade purchase, you should obtain appropriate purchase documentation identifying the supplier and what you bought. At a minimum it should show:

• who supplied the goods;
• the date;
• a clear description of each product, with quantity and price.

For fragrance, that means brand, product name, size and concentration, and whether an item is a tester or gift set.

A VAT invoice is a specific kind of invoice with its own rules. Only VAT-registered businesses can issue one. HMRC requires a VAT-registered supplier to issue a VAT invoice when it makes standard-rated supplies to another VAT-registered business, normally within 30 days. It must include particular details, among them the supplier's VAT number, the VAT rate and the VAT charged, and HMRC treats it as the primary evidence for reclaiming VAT. The full requirements are in HMRC's record-keeping notice. Where either side is not VAT registered, the paperwork will differ but should still identify the supplier and the goods.

Purchase documentation links the stock on your shelf to a supplier, and official guidance for Great Britain expects businesses that supply cosmetics, including retailers and wholesalers, to be able to identify who supplied each product to them. It does not independently prove that the products are authentic.

We keep every supplier invoice and match it both to the payment that settled it and to the stock it covered. When a question comes up later, the answer is a lookup, not a search.

Ask sensible questions about sourcing and traceability

It is reasonable to ask a supplier, in general terms, how it sources its stock, whether goods are boxed, sealed or testers, and whether it will stand behind them if there is a genuine problem. Suppliers may reasonably treat the identities of their own suppliers, and their purchase invoices, as commercially confidential, so a refusal to name upstream suppliers is not evidence of wrongdoing by itself. An inability to give any coherent account of where stock comes from is a different matter.

Terms such as "authorised distributor" or "official stockist" describe a specific relationship with a brand. If a supplier uses them, it is fair to ask what they mean, but do not assume every legitimate wholesaler has, or needs, such a relationship.

"Show me the CPSR" is not a supplier test. Some buying guides suggest asking a wholesaler for a product's Cosmetic Product Safety Report as proof. Perfume is a cosmetic product, and its safety report forms part of a Product Information File held by the product's UK Responsible Person, usually the manufacturer or importer. Official guidance says a distributor is not entitled to check that file unless it is itself the Responsible Person. A reseller of unchanged branded fragrance should not treat the report, or the file, as an authenticity test to demand from a supplier.

The proportionate checks are the ones official guidance expects of distributors. Before selling, confirm the label shows:

• the Responsible Person's name and address;
• a batch number;
• the ingredients list.

Also check that any "best before" date has not passed. Different obligations can apply if you rebrand, repackage or import stock yourself. This article is not legal advice.

Before committing significant money to a new supplier, we ask our questions first and wait for clear written answers.

Read the commercial terms before paying

Terms matter most when something goes wrong. Look for written answers on:

• Damage: how and when it must be reported, and what evidence is needed.
• Shortages: how split deliveries are handled, and when the reporting window starts.
• Returns: whether unwanted stock can be returned, and on what conditions and fees.
• Cancellation: whether an order can be changed or cancelled before dispatch.
• Delivery: whether it is tracked, and how problems in transit are handled.

Reporting windows can be short, sometimes a matter of days. As an example of the detail to look for, our Returns & Damages page sets out how delivery problems are reported to us.

Check payment details before sending money

Payment checks protect against your money going somewhere other than the supplier you have checked. If you are asked to pay an account in a name that does not match the supplier, ask why before paying.

When your bank offers Confirmation of Payee, it compares the name you enter with the name on the account. For a business, enter the account name, which may differ from the trading name. There are four possible results:

• Match: the name you entered agrees with the account.
• Close match: you are shown the actual account name to check.
• No match: you are advised to contact the payee.
• Unavailable: the check could not be made.

A match confirms the account name, not that the business is legitimate. An unexplained no-match is a reason to stop, and you should be wary of anyone who tells you to ignore it.

Treat any unexpected change of bank details with particular care, especially if it arrives by email or message. Report Fraud advises verifying such requests using the supplier's official, verifiable contact details, not the details in the message, and suggests a small test payment before sending a large sum.

Keep payment records that match your invoices; no payment method makes a supplier legitimate in itself. We reconcile each payment to the invoice it settles, so any mismatch between who invoiced us and who we paid shows up straight away.

If you believe you have been defrauded, contact your bank immediately. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, report it to Report Fraud. In Scotland, report it to Police Scotland on 101.

Start proportionately with a new supplier

There is no universal right size for a first order. What matters is how much you would lose if the supplier or the stock proved unsatisfactory, and whether you could absorb that. A first order is partly a test of how a supplier communicates, describes stock, packs and delivers, so keeping exposure modest until you have seen one order through is often sensible. Our wider buying guide covers first-order sizing and landed cost in detail.

We do not let an attractive headline unit price make the decision on its own. A slightly higher unit price can still make commercial sense when the supplier's paperwork, terms and communication give you greater confidence in the transaction.

Check the first delivery against the paperwork

Check the first delivery on the day it arrives, before anything is put away or listed:

• Parcels: count them against the dispatch information, and photograph any external damage before opening.
• Quantities: reconcile every line against the invoice.
• Products: check brand, name, size and concentration, and match EANs if you use them for listings.
• Condition: check boxes, and check seals or cellophane where products were supplied sealed.
• Batch codes: check that codes are present, and that box and bottle codes are consistent where both are marked.
• Labels: check the label details described above.

These checks can reveal inconsistencies, but they cannot prove a fragrance is genuine, because barcodes and batch codes can be copied. A match is mild reassurance; a mismatch is a reason to ask questions before selling.

Packaging varies between genuine products, because manufacturers revise designs and the same fragrance can differ between production runs or markets, so query a difference rather than assume either way. Report anything missing, damaged or not as described in writing within the supplier's window, with photographs, and keep the goods and packaging until it is resolved.

When stock arrives, we match products and EANs against our purchase records before anything is listed. Where packaging differs from what we expected, we check whether it is a known revision before treating it as a problem.

Warning signs: how much weight should you give them?

Warning signs are not equal, so weigh them in three levels.

Worth checking. Common among legitimate businesses; each may justify a question, but none is evidence of wrongdoing by itself:

• a free email address or mobile-only number;
• a recently incorporated company;
• a residential or formation-agent registered office;
• a simple website;
• unwillingness to name upstream suppliers.

Reasons to slow down. Several of these together justify pausing and asking for explanations in writing:

• business names that do not reconcile;
• vague or missing terms on damage, shortages and returns;
• unclear descriptions of tester, gift-set or sealed status;
• prices well below anything comparable across several lines;
• evasive answers to reasonable questions;
• pressure to commit quickly or heavily.

Stop and investigate. Do not pay, or do not resell, until these are resolved:

• an unexplained mismatch between the supplier's identity and the payment account;
• an unexplained Confirmation of Payee no-match;
• unexpected changes of bank details;
• an invalid VAT number, or one registered to a different business, where VAT is being charged;
• a company shown as dissolved when the seller claims to trade through it;
• refusal to provide normal transaction documentation;
• goods that materially do not match the invoice.

If something cannot be explained, walking away is a legitimate commercial decision.

Wholesale perfume supplier verification checklist

This checklist supports a proportionate judgement. It does not prove that a supplier is trustworthy or that stock is genuine.

Before ordering

• Identify who is supplying you: trading name and legal entity.
• Check Companies House, where the supplier is a company or LLP.
• Check the VAT number, where VAT is charged.
• Reconcile business details across the website, documents and VAT record.
• Confirm the contact route works.
• Read the written terms: damage, shortages, returns, cancellation and delivery.
• Understand product descriptions and status: size, concentration, tester, gift set or sealed.
• Ask reasonable sourcing questions.

Before paying

• The invoice or pro-forma identifies the supplier.
• The payee identity has been checked, including Confirmation of Payee where available.
• Any unexplained discrepancies have been resolved.
• Any changed bank details have been verified independently.
• Your order exposure is proportionate.

On first delivery

• Parcels counted.
• Quantities reconciled to the invoice.
• Products, EANs and sizes checked.
• Condition and seals checked.
• Batch-code presence and consistency checked.
• Labels checked.
• Problems recorded and reported promptly.

Records to keep

• Invoices and other purchase documentation.
• Payment confirmations.
• Dated records of business and VAT checks.
• Key correspondence.
• Delivery and problem photographs.
• Claim records, where applicable.

Frequently asked questions

Does Companies House prove a supplier is genuine?

No. It shows registered company facts, not how a business trades or whether its stock is genuine.

How do I check a supplier's VAT number?

Use HMRC's free Check a UK VAT number service. You need the number itself; it confirms validity and shows the registered name and address.

Can a sole trader be a legitimate wholesaler?

Yes. Sole traders are not on the Companies House register and may not be VAT registered. Look for consistency and proper documentation instead.

Does an invoice prove perfume is authentic?

No. It is essential evidence of the transaction and your supplier, but it does not establish the stock's full history.

What should I check before paying a new supplier?

That the documentation identifies the supplier, the payee name matches and any changed bank details are independently verified.

Should I place a small first order?

It can be sensible. There is no universal right size, but a proportionate first order limits your exposure while you see how the supplier performs.

Should a wholesaler give me the product's CPSR or safety report?

Normally, no. It sits in a file held by the product's Responsible Person, which distributors are not generally entitled to check. Check labels and keep your purchase documentation instead.

About Mahsons Wholesale

Mahsons Wholesale is a UK wholesale fragrance business supplying genuine branded and Arabian fragrances to trade buyers, sourced through established distributors and suppliers. We encourage you to apply the checks in this guide to us too. Our company and VAT registration details appear at the foot of every page. Our Authenticity & Quality Assurance page explains our approach to sourcing and purchasing records.

Trade prices are shown excluding VAT, with VAT added at checkout. The minimum order is £100 ex VAT, with mix and match across the catalogue. No trade account is needed, and we deliver within the UK. VAT invoices are available on request, as explained in our Wholesale FAQ.

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