Jennifer Lewis - Getting Your Specialty Food Product Onto Store Shelves: The Ultimate Wholesale How-To Guide For Artisan Food Companies

GETTING YOUR
SPECIALTY FOOD
PRODUCT
ONTO STORE SHELVES

The Ultimate Wholesale How-To Guide For Artisan Food Companies

by Jennifer Lewis

Copyright 2014 Authored By Jennifer Lewis
Published by Rabbit Ranch Publishing
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 0692213287
ISBN 13: 9780692213285

Cover Design By Michelle Draeger
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior written approval of the publisher.

Other Small Food Business Books
Starting A Part-Time Food Business
Food On Wheels
Handmade

Opportunities dont happen, you create them.
~Chris Grosser

SPECIALTY FOOD, ARTISAN FOOD, HANDCRAFTED food, small-batch food, locally made foodno matter what you call it, theres no question that todays consumers are clamoring for products made by enterprising food entrepreneurs. The growing interest in, and growing sales of, specialty food products has not gone unnoticed by stores. Previously the realm of behemoth brands, todays stores are more willing than ever to add small food brands to their shelves. But just because theyre more willing doesnt mean its easy; its still an uphill battle for a relatively unknown and underfunded small food company to build a lucrative wholesale business.

This book is aimed at those small food entrepreneurs who want to build or grow the wholesale side of their businesses but dont have millions of dollars to throw at the problem. What this book wont do is give you a quick-fix, magic formula (because it doesnt exist) or the three easy steps (because it takes more work than that). Neither is this book designed to provide you with surefire recipes, information on the necessary health and business permits needed to start a food business in your specific location, or consumer marketing advice. The sole focus of this book is to provide you with the expertise and information you need so that you can confidently work toward getting your shelf-stable product in front of retail buyers and onto store shelves.

WHY WHOLESALE MATTERS

Before we talk about the specifics, lets take a minute to discuss why a food entrepreneur would want to sell wholesale. If youve chosen to read this book, you probably already know that selling wholesalewhich means selling your product to stores (they sell it to their customers)can be the best way to rapidly increase sales. Instead of selling just one unit to one customer at a time, selling wholesale allows you to sell several unitsusually a minimum number set by youto retailers. Depending on the size of the retailer, this could be six to twelve units at a time or ten thousand units at a time. You can see how just one retailer can have an enormous impact on your bottom line. Assuming your product sells, that retailer will reorder from you again and again as opposed to an individual consumer who may purchase from you occasionally or only once.

Selling wholesale is not just about generating revenue, however. Getting your product onto store shelves can also help build brand recognition. Customers will begin to see and recognize your product. Whats more, getting your product onto store shelves (or online or in catalogs) helps to validate your brand and your company for consumers. Think of it this way: before, you may have sold directly to consumers at festivals, markets, and through your online site. To the consumer, this made you a great little company. If that consumer also happens to see your product at his or her favorite store or in a respected catalog, he or she might suddenly view your brand as much more valuable. This type of exposure makes you and your company seem more trustworthy to the consumer, as the consumer essentially believes that youve already been vetted by retailers. What retailer would risk its reputation on a product it didnt believe in? This exposure also encourages consumers who might not try your product otherwise to be willing to try it. If all goes well, that consumer will buy your product again and again, eventually becoming an advocate for your company and spreading the word about your product to friends and family.

Increased sales, increased distribution, and increased brand recognition: does this sound like what youre looking for? Then lets start by taking a look at the wholesale food landscape and making sure we understand who all the players are.

MOST SPECIALTY FOOD BUSINESSES BEGIN by selling directly to the consumer. This might include having booths at farmers markets or selling online through the businesss own website or through a partner site like Etsy.com or Shopify.com.

Since selling wholesale entails selling to stores who then sell to the customer, that end consumer is no longer your sole concern when youre trying to build your wholesale business (though, obviously, you always want to keep that end customer in mind!). To get your products onto store shelves in the first place, you need to understand the roles of three key players in the wholesale food industry: the buyers, the brokers, and the distributors. All of these people or business entities perform different functions in the industry, some or all of which you may encounter at some time. As such, it makes sense to understand the role each plays as you grow your wholesale business.

BUYERS

Anytime you sell into a store, you will, at some level or another, be working with the stores buyer. Sometimes also known as category managers, buyers are the people who decide which products the store brings onto its shelves and which it takes off. No matter whether you want to get your products into brick-and-mortar stores, online stores, or mail-order catalogs, buyers make the ultimate decision on who makes the cut and who doesnt.

Thats not to say that all buyer positions are alike. Depending on the size of the store, the buyer may be juggling several distinct responsibilities. This is often the case with independently owned retail stores where the buyer is the store owner and is also responsible for stocking shelves, managing employees, doing all the bookkeeping, and overseeing the marketing. In other stores, the buyer is its own separate position charged with and evaluated on determining which products and brands to bring into the store. In some cases, these buyers are responsible for all of the purchasing for an entire store; in others, especially in larger supermarkets, there may be several buyers or category managers, each of whom is responsible for different sections of the store. To take it one step further, some large stores and national chains have centralized buyers who make all the buying decisions for the entire company regardless of where the stores are located. Yet other large stores leave the buying decisions to regional buyers or may even have specific, store-level buyers.