Distributor wanted - what does this mean?

 I remember when I first went to trade shows offering food and wine I would ask where their products could be bought in Britain, or Europe. Often the prospective seller would say distributor wanted. Or the catalogue might say that under their name. Some even had a sign on their table, distributor wanted.

I wondered whether this was just the seller hoping that distributor walking by would try their wines or food. If the taster liked it, would they then decide to talk about it and seal a deal.

Would there be conflicts of interest? We already have a Champagne. Or would it be the contrary. We stock Champagnes. Or we don't stock Champagnes.

I always assumed that the first factor was finding a distributor. The second was convincing the prospect that you were offering a saleable product. 

The forums and discussion sessions are often dealing with where is the market going. Are there more people in this country or that buying alcohol. low alcohol, no alcohol. healthy foods, small quantities, large quantities?

Once seller at an event sadly said that there were not enough distributors.

Can you tell the distributor by the colour of their ribbon on their lanyard? Sometimes visitors are not what they seems. They may be retired. They may have two businesses. They may be between jobs. They may be a novice at a company, not yet ready to talk, calling over somebody more senior.

On the DHL stand I discovered that the large shippers are go-betweens, delivering from a seller in one country to the distributor, in effect a wholesaler, in another country. Maybe getting a second line of business from the smaller deliveries from the distributor to the restaurant, hotel, ship, website warehouse, or customer's home. They have the list of distributors who are their clients.

But some distributors deal only with wine. So if you are at a wine and food show, such as the Italian Wine and Food show, you need a distributor for food, or for both.

Then, at the London Wine Fair, my husband pointed out that a stand with numerous wines was not a vineyard, not a producer, but a distributor.

At the opposite side of Olympia, I saw the magic word, DISTRIBUTOR on a stand.

Later, I visited a stand which said, Distributor wanted. I asked, 'Did you know that there's a stand with the word distributor? Have you already visited them.:'

'Yes, we're still negotiating with them.'

Ah. So what are you negotiating about? I am wondering, quantity, delivery routes and costs?

The answer was succinct. 'Price.'

Back to my husband. He says, 'First you need to be offering a quality product, which satisfied the buyer or consumer. That's a given. After that, there's price.'

Hm. I'm not sure about that. Some supermarkets keep rotating products. They want to offer novelties. If something sells well, they stock it for a second month. If not, it goes and a new item comes in.'

I also went to an online talk by somebody who wanted to sell you his mentoring programme, saying he made a fortune online and could get you to do the same, while he took money from teaching you, and a percentage of the million you made. His system was creating products such as bags and hats and tee-shirts, which were print on demand. You came up with a hundred ideas a day. You just kept tyring new ones until eventually something hit the jackpot.

Other sellers go for small volumes or luxury expensive goods or huge volumes or bargain goods. When one succeeds, you then move into the other markets. Or start with both extremes. You can probably think of hotel chains which launched a lower or higher priced hotel, or a brand with a new name for a different country.

Meanwhile I am still waiting to hear when the wonderul Minnitti panettone will get a districutor so that I can buy it in the UK. They don't sell overseas through their website. Either they don't have the time or the staff or the postage costs are too high. They need a distributor. But all the other panettone sellers in the UK hae managed it. What are they doing? Nringing it over in their own van and selling it to their own shop? The distributor needs to find a buyer, a shop willing to sell the product. If you set up a shop, with your son and daughter in law, or somebody you meet who loves the product. 

I had a friend years ago who made a business from going around embassies, talking his way in, reading the notice boards or newsletters about products needing districutors. He then acted as go between.

And he got paid. When I typed in the word distributor on the internet, up popped an ad from a firm of lawyer's offering to sell me a contract and vet a contract guaranteeing my payment as a go between introducing a seller to a buyer.

Now you know.