A lovely jar of chutney and a pile of questions
A local maker comes in with a jar of chutney and some biscuits. They are delicious, and you want to stock them. Then the questions start. What is the trade price and the recommended retail price? Are they on sale or return or bought outright? Do the jars have barcodes? Are the labels complete? Is the maker registered with their local authority as a food business? Do they have product liability insurance? How much can they supply each week, and when do they deliver?
Some answers come by email, some by text, some on a scrap of paper. A few never come. The chutney sits in the back for a week while someone sets it up on the till. The insurance certificate that was promised never arrives, and nobody notices for a year.
Why taking on producers is slow
Small producers are often new to supplying shops, and you are often doing the setup around everything else. There is no single list of what you need from them. Information arrives in pieces, gets typed into several places, the till, your supplier list, your sale-or-return records, and documents with expiry dates are filed and forgotten.
- There is no single list of what a new producer must provide.
- Details arrive in pieces over email, text and conversation.
- Products are set up on the till by hand, sometimes days later.
- Insurance and other documents expire without anyone noticing.
- Terms such as commission or sale or return are agreed verbally.
What documents you need from a producer, and what their labels must show, are decisions for you and your advisers under the rules that apply. We do not advise on them. We build the process that collects and tracks what you decide to ask for.
What slow onboarding costs
Good products wait weeks to reach the shelf, and a producer who finds the process hard may take their products elsewhere. Products that go on sale with missing information create risks for the shop. Expired insurance or registration details that nobody checked are a worry nobody wants. And verbal terms lead to disagreements at the first statement.
It also limits how many local producers you can take on. Each new one costs time, so the range grows more slowly than customers would like.
The producer sign-up we build
- A producer sign-up page you send by link after the first conversation, asking for business details, contact, products, prices, terms preference, delivery pattern and the documents you require.
- Product details for each item: name, size, trade price, suggested retail price, barcode if any, ingredients and allergens as stated by the producer, shelf life and storage, and a photo of the label.
- Document upload for the items you require, such as insurance certificates and registration details, with expiry dates recorded.
- A checklist showing what is complete and what is missing, with reminders to the producer until it is done, and a review by you before the producer is approved.
- On approval, products set up in your till through its API or import, labels printed for items without barcodes, and the producer added to your supplier and sale-or-return records.
- Reminders before any document expires, sent to the producer first and to you if nothing arrives.
| Step | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Collecting details | Email, text and conversation | One sign-up page |
| Missing information | Noticed later, or never | Checklist and reminders |
| Till setup | Typed by hand days later | Created on approval |
| Documents | Filed and forgotten | Expiry dates tracked |
| Terms | Agreed verbally | Recorded and confirmed by email |
Taking on a producer afterwards
After tasting the chutney, you send the maker the sign-up link. They fill it in over a couple of evenings, uploading their certificate and label photos. The checklist reminds them about the barcode question. You review, approve and the products appear on the till with labels printed for the biscuits, which have no barcodes. The first delivery is logged the same week.
A year later, the maker gets a reminder that their insurance renewal is due, uploads the new certificate, and you never had to think about it. And adding a new product from an existing maker is the same short form.
Does taking on producers feel like this?
- New local products wait weeks to reach the shelf.
- Producer details arrive in pieces across email and text.
- Nobody checks when a producer's documents expire.
- Terms with producers are agreed verbally.
- Setting up products on the till is a job nobody gets round to.