Finding Suppliers

Something I am often asked by new businesses is how they find, contact and deal with suppliers of the products that they wish to sell.

You might assume finding them with the growth of the internet will be easy, but think again! Type in "wholesaler" or "distributor" into search and it will bring up the information you want, what you will find instead is thousands of results for "wholesale clubs" or "distributor lists" which rarely contain the companies that you should be approaching, some will even charge a membership fee to get contact details! Do not join them.

If the products you want are from a branded manufacturer, call them and ask if they can put you in touch with a Distributor in your area (some will have local area distributors, others will have nationwide distributors). Few sizeable manufacturers will deal directly with anyone other than their biggest clients, as a new business / customer that is unlikely to be you, so do not waste your time trying. Smaller manufacturers might, but will usually require significant volumes to be purchased.

If the products you want are more generic, you may have to do some more research as to who distributes them, by possibly buying the product to get details or looking for addresses in competing businesses.

Do not go to a rival and hope to write down addresses of suppliers from products on their shelves, any store manager worth their salt will boot you out of the store.

Additionally try and find out about trade fairs covering the products that you wish to sell. The National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham (LG Arena) is a good starting point What's On - The NEC Group, Birmingham


Once you have found the distributors you need phone their sales line and ask for:

A trade application form
A Catalogue
A trade price list
& The number of their Representative that covers your area.

They may not be prepared to send you a trade price list until you have an account set up.

If this is your first business, the first snag you are going to hit is that to get any form of credit they will want 2 or 3 references from existing suppliers and a business bank reference. This is why you needed the local reps telephone number. If you can't present that information, call the rep and see if you can negotiate an arrangement.

What he / she will do (depending on their desire for your account) is to either:

a/. Try and negotiate a very small credit limit on your behalf
b/. Negotiate a pro-forma account (cleared funds before they ship your goods)
c/. Advise you of a company that will 'sub deal' their products. (Although this will most likely reduce your margin).


Other problems. Don't think just because you believe you can sell their products that they will want to supply you!

There are many reasons they may not wish to supply you.

1/. Many distributors have very strict rules on who they will supply.
2/. Some will insist you have a bricks and mortar (a shop!) presence.
3/. Others will not supply if they think your business will not suit the image they have for their brand.
4/. Some will demand 'x' amount of floor space before considering you.
5/. Others will have exclusive agreements with businesses in your area.
6/. They may having pricing arangements and will not sell to you if you discount their products.
7/. Your turnover is not high enough for them to consider the application.

Finally you need to think carefully (especially when starting out) over minimum orders and minimum quantities that you will need to buy in.

For example, if your distributer has a minimum order of £500 and you offer their products with a short delivery time, but aren't holding stock (always hard to do when you don't know what is going to sell) and you end up ordering three times in a week to cover three £10 orders for a product you haven't got, you will have made sales of £30 but spent £1500 whilst sitting on +£1470 of stock at cost that you will need to store and be unsure if you can sell!


Assuming you have overcome all these obstacles, and it does get easier the longer your business has been trading, do yourself a favour, keep to the terms of their payment arrangements... it will help you open more accounts and keep you a good credit rating.

Shout if you want me to clarify anything.