Food marketing that starts with getting on the shelf

The stores that buy from small food brands

Independent stores can say yes without a head office, which makes them the right first stockists. Good places to start:

• Delis and specialty grocers for sauces, preserves, pantry goods and anything with a story.
• Independent grocers and health food shops for everyday staples and better-for-you products.
• Cafés for grab-and-go items next to the till.
• Restaurants when your product is an ingredient a kitchen can put on its menu.
• Gyms and studios for high-protein and recovery food.

Fit beats volume

A vegan shop will not stock a product with dairy in it, however good the email. Stores that cannot sell your product waste your follow-ups and your samples. We judge each store against what you make before it goes on the list, and you can remove any store before anything is sent.

Start with one city and one store type, and keep each campaign to one product and one audience. A pantry sauce pitched to delis and the same sauce pitched to restaurant kitchens are two different emails.

What a food buyer wants to know

Store owners ask the same few things: the margin they make, the shelf life, the case size, the minimum order, and how it gets to them. Chilled and frozen products raise the delivery question early, so have an answer before the first reply. Work out a wholesale price that leaves the store a fair margin with the wholesale price calculator.

The first email does not carry all of that. It says why your food fits that store, in a few lines, and asks one easy thing. The price list goes out when a store replies. Have the answers written down before then, so every owner who asks gets the same clear reply the same day.

How the outreach works

We find the stores and the owner or buyer at each, and write every email around that store and your product. Emails go out from a separate domain we set up for you, so your own address is never at risk, and a short run of follow-ups stops the moment a store replies. You answer the reply yourself.

Gochi, a high-protein ramen, found 12 interested gyms and health stores in Melbourne in three weeks, from 172 contacted (case study). CBUN opened 31 restaurant conversations in Bucharest in a month for its premium potatoes (case study).

Reorders are the real result

A first order proves a store was curious. A reorder proves your food sells there. After a first delivery, check in at about two weeks: ask how it is moving, whether staff know what to say about it, and whether a different flavour would suit their customers better. Stores that reorder are the names a distributor and a chain buyer will later ask about.

Flow keeps each store in view from reply to sample, first order and reorder, and reminds you who is due a check-in. If you run Cin7 Core, your orders sync in, so reorders show up without typing them twice.

Where to go next

Snack makers have their own page for snack brands, and roasters for coffee roasters. If cafés are your first target, read how to get your product into cafes. To see which stores near you would fit, see who would stock you.