I was recently asked to give a talk at the Natural and organic product show about what mistakes suppliers make when selling to the retailers – both from my experience as a buyer and also as a seller – what has gone right and what has been a horrible disaster! So I thought out what […]
Continue readingYou have chosen the best position for your stand, invested the money for the biggest one you can afford and then been shocked by all the additional costs – who knew electricity points cost so much?!!! So how do you now get the best return on that investment? Here’s the top 5 steps to success: […]
Continue readingStress, distress and success of running a food business Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. Winston Churchill Over the past thirty-five years that I have been in retail, the world has changed greatly. The retailers dominate the retail landscape. Tesco has 28% market share of […]
Continue readingImagine you are the buyer of a major retailer – you get upto 200 emails a week from people wanting to list their products. You have a great range already – its not doing badly – why take the risk of launching another product?? Then out of the blue, something different and interesting – you […]
Continue readingThe consumer is no longer a simple animal. There is the paradox of choice that renders most people incapable of change. 85% of our food purchases never change. Most people eat the same sandwich for lunch every day. Online ordering from Ocado, Just Eat etc reminds us what we bought last time and, despite all the interrupters in […]
Continue readingLast year I wrote a book called – Recipe for success – the ingredients of a profitable food business and whilst it is aimed at food producers, the principles are just as applicable to any consumer good whether that is a chocolate mousse or a mascara And so are the mistake that companies make […]
Continue readingI started life in a department store and then moved to be a buyer first at Tesco and then Boots. I then turned gamekeeper and moved to food suppliers as a commercial director and have spent the last 10 years selling into retailers. So what are the 5 mistakes that companies make when trying to […]
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