🇦🇬How to verify a supplier in Antigua and Barbuda
To verify a supplier in Antigua and Barbuda, look the company up for free in the official Antigua and Barbuda Intellectual Property and Commerce Office (ABIPCO) and confirm it is registered and currently active. The registry returns the official status (active, dissolved, or struck off), incorporation date, and entity type for registered companies, business names, partnerships, and trademarks (free name search in a normal browser; no public API or bulk download).
The official registry
- Registry
- Antigua and Barbuda Intellectual Property and Commerce Office (ABIPCO)
- Company ID
- company registration number
- Cost
- Free basic lookup
- Active status
- A company that returns an Active status in the ABIPCO register is a real, currently-registered entity; dissolved or struck-off means it is no longer trading and should not be dealt with.
- A foreign supplier trading into Antigua must register as an External Company within 12 months and can be asked for its ABIPCO Certificate of Registration for an External Company, the single strongest document to request.
- Deep data (directors, shareholders, filing history) is not on the free search: it needs a paid Certified Extract (about 50 to 100 East Caribbean dollars, roughly 19 to 37 US dollars) from the St. John's office. Private sites selling a Antigua company dossier are just reselling this same open ABIPCO data at a markup, so check the official portal first.
- Antigua and Barbuda uses the East Caribbean dollar, pegged at 1 USD = 2.70 XCD, and runs company law under the Companies Act 1995 requiring at least one director aged 18+ and a registered local office. Real production is small but genuine, concentrated in rum distilling, hot sauce and honey, beverage bottling, ceramics and furniture assembly.
Before you sign: five asks no registry can answer
The register proves the company exists and who signs. It says nothing about whether the supplier survives a bad quarter, a fire or a key person leaving. Serious suppliers answer these five asks without friction; hesitation on any of them is information too.
- Business continuity: what happens to your order if their plant loses power, a strike hits or their systems go down? Ask for the plan, not a reassurance.
- Liability insurance: is product or professional liability insured, with which insurer and to what ceiling? A certificate of insurance is a one-page email for a real firm.
- Exit terms: how do you terminate if it goes wrong, what notice and fees apply, and how do you get your tooling, molds or data back?
- Support in numbers: ask for response and resolution times as figures, not adjectives. A supplier who commits to hours in writing has a support process; one who writes fast support does not.
- Named people: who exactly runs production and who owns your account? Continuity of a named team matters more than a polished sales deck, and employee-review sites often show whether that team stays.
General commercial hygiene, not legal advice.
Verify it in four steps
- 1
Open the Antigua and Barbuda Intellectual Property and Commerce Office (ABIPCO)
Antigua and Barbuda Intellectual Property and Commerce Office (ABIPCO) is the official government record of companies in Antigua and Barbuda. Basic name or number search is free.
- 2
Search the exact legal name or ID
Search the supplier's registered name or its company registration number. If the name does not match cleanly, treat it as a red flag, it may be a trade name, a different entity, or wrong.
- 3
Confirm it is active, not struck off
A company that returns an Active status in the ABIPCO register is a real, currently-registered entity; dissolved or struck-off means it is no longer trading and should not be dealt with.
- 4
Check it makes what it sells
A real factory carries a manufacturing activity code and a consistent trade history; a middleman reselling everything is the most common mismatch.
This is a factual pointer to public records, not legal advice. For the full method, see the 7 checks that separate a real supplier from a scam.
We do this check for you
On every Antigua and Barbuda company we list, we show what the open record says, each linked to its free public source so you can re-check it yourself, no paid badge. And we go past the big directories to the local and craft makers who are too small for them but real, then verify and sort them, so you find genuine Antigua and Barbuda suppliers, not just the loudest.
Antigua and Barbuda suppliers by sector
Every company on these pages shows what the open record says about it, each fact linked to its free public source.
Related guides
Questions
Is checking a Antigua and Barbuda supplier free?
Yes. A basic name or number lookup in the Antigua and Barbuda Intellectual Property and Commerce Office (ABIPCO) is free. Some full official extracts are paid, but confirming a company exists and is active costs nothing.
What ID does a Antigua and Barbuda company have?
Its company registration number. Ask the supplier for it, then confirm it in the Antigua and Barbuda Intellectual Property and Commerce Office (ABIPCO) and check the registered name matches.
How do I know a Antigua and Barbuda supplier is a real manufacturer, not a reseller?
The registry's activity code is the tell: a manufacturing code means a real maker, a wholesale or retail code means a trader. A foreign supplier trading into Antigua must register as an External Company within 12 months and can be asked for its ABIPCO Certificate of Registration for an External Company, the single strongest document to request.