How To Get Into Butera
Founded in 1968, Butera Finer Foods, Inc has been doing business as Butera Market and it owns and operates stores in Illinois. The company has stores in Elgin, Norridge, Roselle, Lindenhurst, Naperville, Genoa, Harwood Heights, Palatine, and Algonquin.
Butera Market is a family-owned chain of supermarkets. The family spirit of homeliness resonates in the store. When you enter any of the Butera Market, there is this exceptional friendly customer service that puts a smile on your face for the rest of the day. This, the retailer takes pride in. The supermarkets offer complete services and the locations are spread throughout several areas of Illinois. In Chicago, Joe C is now owned and operated by Butera Markets and they have been able to improve on quite a lot of things.
Founded by two brothers, the stores focus mainly on providing its customers with farm fresh produce, local, and also international food and delicatessen, dairy and grocery items at very affordable prices. The company which was a family owned business had a shift in ownership. It became a company owned by its employees. This may be a reason why the customer service is very exceptional as the employees see the business as theirs and not from the perspective that they are working for a boss.
The company has been able to lay claim to quite a number of stores within the state of Illinois. For more than 35 years, the company has been a leader when it comes to low priced supermarkets in the state of Illinois. The company has been able to maintain its rich customer base despite stiff competition from low priced retailers like the ALDI Group, Jewel-Osco, and Dominick’s Supermarkets.
To make shopping a worthwhile experience at Butera Market, there are additional services that can be accessed by customers at the supermarkets. These include a Charter One bank branch, ATMs, a Lottery ticket booth, a Western Union Branch, and dry cleaners.
As a way of offering a wide variety to customers, the food market offers a wide variety of breads and pastries, meat and a wide selection of seafood items; all these at everyday low prices to make shopping a wonderful experience.
There have been very great reviews on Butera Markets online. From customer reviews, cleanliness, large variety, and fantastic return policy, there seem to be a cult following among customers of this supermarket.
For a distributor, this is an established food retailer that can get your products to move as fast as possible. With the awesome varieties they offer and the established customer base, it can be easily deduced that there are customers already dedicated to what they sell. However, this is a big retailer and there is a high standard for the products they take and thus, it may not be that easy to push your products in there. This is why networking can be very useful.
On the local sourcing of food products, Butera Market has been on the forefront of selling locally sourced food products and this has given their customers a sense of connection to the products.
How to get your product into Butera
- Understand you client: Before you spend a lot of time and money creating a product, you should know if anyone will want to buy it. Learn more about Market Research
- Learn if it’s protectable: Know if you can defend your product against cheap copies if it gets knocked off. Learn more about Copyright and Patent your product
- Test your product: Make sure that there’s a demand for your product and the customer understands what you are selling when it’s on the shelf and nobody is there to explain it. Learn more about Product Testing
- Perfect your pitch: Before you speak to decision makers, know your numbers, know your retailer and know your logistics in and out. Learn more about Pitching Your Product
- Don’t do it alone: If you haven’t been successful in retail before, a secret of success is that you can’t do it alone. Having great sales staff, customer support and marketing partners can take you from zero to success faster than if you tried on your own. Learn more about Retail Partnerships
Contact Butera Buyer
Do not trust any “list” of buyers.
Typically retail buyers change either companies or positions every few years. This strategy helps retailers know that their buyers are not taking “kick-backs” and are selecting the very best product for the very best position each time.
Buyers are typically held to a very rigorous standard of sell-through volume that they must hit and because of this they are risk averse. Your job as a supplier or vendor is to convince them that the buyers going into the stores not only know about what you’re selling but are actively seeking the product in the store currently.
How to Submit a Product to Butera
There are several ways to get a product placed in Butera. However, most entrepreneurs only dream about getting their product distributed to major retailers, few actually do it. We have experienced a significant rise in interest since the show Shark Tank started airing on NBC. Mr. Checkout has had the pleasure of working with a few Shark Tank success stories such as KISStixx and 180 Party Cups which are now currently being distributed around the country to stores like Walmart, Target, Kroger, 7-Eleven and more.
If you envision your product would be a good fit for Butera, we have a few steps to help you get your product on their shelves.
Here are the 6 steps you need to take to have your product placed in Butera.
1. Start with the right questions.) Before you try distributing your product to Butera, you need to ask yourself a few basic questions. Do you need to build demand for your product, or is there already a demand for it? Do you know that Butera would be interested in selling your product? If you can strike a deal with Butera, can you handle the production volume? Do you want to sell directly to Butera, or do you want to license your product to a manufacturer that will handle distribution?
2. Be prepared to profit.) Does your product offer enough of a profit margin for Butera? Can you sell your product at a reasonable enough profit to cover the packaging, shipping, commissions, marketing and wholesale distribution? Check Butera guidelines for other fees that you will have to build into the cost of your product in order for you to be able to turn enough of a profit to make the effort worth your while. If you work with a discount retailer, they will try to strip your profits down to zero in order to keep their prices as low as possible.
The typical breakdown of margins are: If a products costs $1 to produce, that product will retail for $4. That product that retails for $4 will wholesale for $2 to distributors and stores that purchase direct. Big box retailers like Butera may offer to pay $1.25 to the manufacturer if the product costs $1 to produce. That is the typical profit margin.
3. Determine if Butera is the right store for your product.) The relationship between you and Butera starts with you browsing their store for competing products. If Butera already has a similar product, it is going to be very difficult to get your product picked up. Spend some time at your local Butera to see what kind of products they are selling, speak to the manager and see if he thinks your product will sell well in their store. Picture in which zone your product would best fit on the shelf and keep in mind that the most precious asset that these big box stores value are their shelf space. Keep this information in mind when you are preparing your presentation to Butera.
If your company is minority or women owned, check Butera website and see if they offer specific opportunities for those designations.
4. Pitch your product to Butera.) Decide whether it will be you or a representative to present your product to Butera. Your presentation depends heavily on your strengths as a businessperson as they will most likely ask financial questions and logistics questions.
It’s common for companies to hire a broker to pitch their product to Butera, as it will be more likely that your product will make it to the next stage if the individual pitching your product has industry knowledge or a personal relationship with Butera. The percentage of commission verses, however generally a broker will take around 5% to represent your product to Butera.
We at Mr. Checkout have experience dealing with brokers and know that there are several retail brokers that have poor business practices that can potentially damage your brand. If you are seeking a legitimate Butera broker, please give us a call for a recommendation. It could save you a huge headache and a lot of money.
5. Complete the required Butera paperwork.) Often Butera will have you go through an application process. However, before submitting the paperwork required by Butera, you should contact a buyer at Butera and let them know your intentions. Having a contact inside of the company will potentially move your application more smoothly through the process.
6. Anticipate the need for increased volume.) Having Butera agree to stock your product will most likely mean a significant increase in volume. You should be prepared to ramp up your production and informing your manufacturer of this opportunity.
Having production, logistics and distribution to sync is not only difficult, it requires a significant amount of time invested in customer relations. Also, Butera may have stipulations in the contract that may penalize you for delays in shipping and production. Have an attorney explain all contracts to you if you don’t understand the terms.
If you’re looking to sell your product to Butera, be sure to thoroughly assess the marketplace, carefully prepare for production growth, and take full advantage of resources available to help you grow your business.
Submit Your Product Now
(est. time 3 minutes)