Any product distributors on here?

[alfabeat]

Our food ingredient product has been sold in the multiples for many years as well as wholesalers and therefore across the country in a full variety of stores.

Since the takeover of Bookers, it has unfortunately been delisted and our current distributor will not look at orders under £500 in value. Hence we are seeing a lot of the smaller shops, garden centres, farm shops etc failing to stock it now as it is not readily available for them to buy.

So we have a few options.

1. Start supplying direct the orders under £500

2. Find a new distributor to take over the whole lot, but who is willing to supply lower volumes

3. Find a distributor to work alongside the existing distributor to fulfill the needs of the smaller customers.

We are starting to look at all 3 options. Are there any product distributors on this forum who may be interested in taking a look?

[The Moose]

I would have thought option 1 would be the way forward?

You could also tie this in with a website where customers can order direct.

Trade customers can log in for their custom pricing, retail customers just see what’s on the site and can buy or not?

[alfabeat]

Thank you. We are a very lean business. And the prospect of shipping product ourselves is a bit of a shift change. Currently I spend about 1 day a week on the business, so packing up product and shipping it would clearly be a big change for us.

Need to give it careful consideration.

[The Moose]

After I posted, I wondered if that would be the case.

There are plenty of fulfillment companies who could handle it for you?

[anonymous-user]

There are alternatives to booker, have you spoken to them?