How To Get Into Super A Foods
- 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
How To Get Into Super A Foods
A chain of 8 supermarkets, Super A Foods is one of the top foods and grocery seller in the country. The supermarket was founded by one of the erstwhile board members of the Unified Grocers. The supermarket offers awesome food varieties to its customers from several distributors from all over. The retail business requires connecting to the several individual customers that would walk in the door. This retailer does it well.
According to the company, “We at Super A Foods strive to provide our customers with the best overall shopping experience. Our aim is to keep our prices low and our customer service high. In this fierce age of competition, we pride ourselves on employing team members that focus on creating a seamless customer experience.”
On the company’s website, there are weekly ads which let customers know the deals available to them every week. This is a move that keeps customers aware of what they can put into their weekly budget for food products.
The stores also feature kitchen. As a distributor, you have to look at how your product can make the services and products offered to customers much better. This retailer prepares food for dinners, and other events.
This company has a reputation for quality products and customer-friendly prices and its procurement standards are quite high. To get your products into this store, you need to get on the RangeMe platform as the buyers of the company use the platform to source new products. You can create a free profile to get started. The platform works by getting you connected to potential buyers who would see the range of products you have on your supply dash.
People have peculiarities and these need to be addressed differently. Each customer has to be connected to separately. This means, the supermarkets try to address the needs and interests of individual customers. This is by offering local, international, and metropolitan products. Thus, as a vendor, you should be looking at getting varieties to the retailer.
You need a unique selling point as a vendor – this is what sets you apart from others. Look at your products and see what you are offering differently. If not different, go back to the drawing board and see how you can rebrand or bring out a distinction. Distinctiveness can help you carve a niche for yourself in the marketplace.
Consider pitching to a top official who can take interest in your products and get it tested by other persons in charge of procurement. As the grocery offerings of this retailer are quite large, there is room for a lot of products to be supplied. If your products are quite popular in the local market, it will be easy for you to easily pitch to this retailer. You have to bring your product to top quality to help you with the pitch of the product.
Contact Super A Foods
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 Super A Foods
There are several ways to get a product placed in Super A Foods. 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 Super A Foods, 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 Super A Foods.
1. Start with the right questions.) Before you try distributing your product to Super A Foods, 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 Super A Foods would be interested in selling your product? If you can strike a deal with Super A Foods, can you handle the production volume? Do you want to sell directly to Super A Foods, 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 Super A Foods? Can you sell your product at a reasonable enough profit to cover the packaging, shipping, commissions, marketing and wholesale distribution? Check Super A Foods 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. Retailers like Super A Foods 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 is the right store for your product.) The relationship between you and Super A Foods starts with you browsing their store for competing products. If Super A Foods already has a similar product, it is going to be very difficult to get your product picked up. Spend some time at your local Super A Foods 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 Super A Foods.
If your company is minority or women owned, check Super A Foods website and see if they offer specific opportunities for those designations.
4. Pitch your product to Super A Foods. Decide whether it will be you or a representative to present your product to Super A Foods. 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 Super A Foods to pitch their product to Super A Foods, 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 Super A Foods. The percentage of commission verses, however generally a broker will take around 5% to represent your product too Super A Foods.
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 Super A Foods, please give us a call for a recommendation. It could save you a huge headache and a lot of money.
5. Complete the required Super A Foods paperwork. Often Super A Foods will have you go through an application process. However, before submitting the paperwork required by Super A Foods, you should contact a buyer at Super A Foods 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 Super A Foods 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, Super A Foods 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 Super A Foods, 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.
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