What a modern trade or institutional buyer asks a new food supplier for

A supermarket chain's category manager and an institutional kitchen's purchase team each ask a new food supplier for four kinds of thing. These are product details, packing, how the item will sell or be used, and documents about you. The exact list belongs to the buyer and differs between buyers. So ask for it in the first conversation, before any sample or price. A supplier who answers the list line by line looks ready. One who sends a brochure looks like work.

Two buyers, two different worries

The category manager at a chain is asking whether the product will sell from a shelf. The question behind it is whether you will deliver to the warehouse on the right day, with barcodes that scan and cases the system recognises. The talk is of margin on MRP, shelf life at receipt, case sizes and what happens to damaged or expired stock.

The purchase team at a hospital kitchen, a canteen operator or a hotel group's central store has a different fear. Will every batch cook the same, and will the delivery arrive before the meal? They want a rate per kilo, bulk packs, batch numbers and, sometimes, a look at your plant.

How kitchens choose between suppliers is covered in our note on bulk food buyers. This post is about the list that comes before the choice. The wider route, from first enquiry to trial order, is on our food processing page.

Ask for their list in the first conversation

Before you send anything, ask these:

• Is there a new supplier form or checklist I can fill in?
• Who approves a new product: the category team, quality, or both?
• Which documents does quality want before the sample, and which after?
• Barcodes: on the unit pack, the case, or both?
• What remaining shelf life do you need when stock reaches you?
• Will your team visit the plant before the first order?
• Where do deliveries go, and what must the invoice show?

Seven questions, asked on a call, save days of back-and-forth by email. If a chain says its form arrives only after a meeting, ask for last year's blank form from anyone who has filled one. Write down the answers word for word, because they become your checklist for this buyer.

The supplier file, in four parts

Keep one file per product that you can send in parts as each buyer asks.

Product. For each pack: the name as on the label, ingredients as declared, net quantity, shelf life and storage. Add the claims you make with your basis for each, and clean photographs of the front and back.

Packing. Unit pack dimensions and weight, units per case, case dimensions and gross weight, how many cases stack safely, and the barcode on each.

Shelf or kitchen. For chains: MRP, the margin you offer, shelf life at dispatch, how you handle damaged or near-expiry stock, and any launch support you can fund. For institutions: bulk pack sizes, rate per kilo delivered, and what is printed on each bag.

Supplier. Business registration and GST, and your food licence or registration details. Add bank details, any lab reports you hold, plant photographs, and named people for orders, quality and accounts.

What a food pack must declare, and which licence or registration a unit needs, differs by product, state and body, and the rules change. Check with your own adviser or the regulator before you print or claim anything. The buyer's list tells you what the buyer wants, not what the law requires.

The supplier part reads better as a short corporate profile than as a pile of scanned papers.

Where new suppliers lose the buyer before the sample

A common way to lose a chain is to answer its form with a brochure, or to leave out case dimensions its system needs. The fix is the same for a kitchen: answer the buyer's own list, in the buyer's order.

Imagine a Bikaner papad maker with two new buyers

Imagine, as an invented example, a Bikaner unit making moong and urad papad and fryums, sold through distributors across Rajasthan. In one week, two enquiries arrive. A regional supermarket chain in Jaipur wants a 200 g papad pack. A hospital group's central kitchen in Delhi wants papad for patient meals.

The owner asks each buyer for its list first. The chain's new item form wants case dimensions, barcode, margin on MRP and shelf life at delivery. No case data exists yet. Someone measures cartons while the form waits. It then goes back complete, and the chain lists the pack, though at first in only some of its stores.

The hospital kitchen's list asks for a recent lab report on the product and a plant visit. The unit holds neither a report nor the certification the kitchen prefers. The owner says so plainly and asks whether a trial would be considered. The kitchen says it will revisit once a report is in hand, so the owner treats that as no for now and orders the report, which costs about ₹8,000 and a week of waiting for the lab.

The owner keeps one product sheet per pack, with case data and barcode, and a separate bulk sheet for kitchens. Plant photographs show rolling, drying and packing, ready for the next buyer's visit request.

When the list is beyond you, for now

A chain or institution may ask for a plant certification or a lab report you do not hold. Say so plainly, and ask whether they will consider you through a trial or after you have it. Do not promise to "get it soon". If the answer is no, take it as no for now. Regional chains, smaller canteen operators and distributors may have lists you can meet today.

Build the sheet for your best-selling pack first

Start with the pack that sells most. Write its product and packing details on one sheet, measure the case, and photograph the front and back on a plain background. Then, the next time a buyer calls, ask for the list before you send anything. The product and packing sheets are the kind of work sales collateral development covers. If you want help putting the supplier file together, tell us what you need.