The Power of Redistribution for Food Suppliers

If you are a food supplier who wants to grow your business, working with a redistributor like Honor Foods can be a simple, efficient way to expand your market share. Redistributors operate as partners, not competitors, to food suppliers, using their reach, business model, and relationships with small to medium-sized distributors to help the food supplier grow.

Introducing Food Suppliers to Unknown Customers

One strength of working with a redistributor like our Honor Foods is that they excel at introducing food suppliers to “unknown” customers. Unknown customers are customers that aren’t on your radar as a supplier, either simply because you don’t know they exist or because you don’t have the capability to service them directly. Because of the extensive product list Honor Foods offers, they have a wide range of customers, making it easy to introduce customers to new products from new food manufacturers they may not know about.

Servicing “Hard to Reach” Customers

Most food suppliers thrive by selling truckload quantities of products to large distributors. Selling truckload quantities allows food suppliers to minimize their logistics costs. However, many small to mid-sized distributors are unable to buy large truckload quantities because they either don’t have the warehouse space to store it all or won’t be able to turn the product quickly enough based on its shelf life. These small to mid-sized independent distributors prefer to buy in small LTL quantities more frequently, which often just isn’t possible for food suppliers to service directly.

That is where a redistributor like Honor Foods comes up. Working with a redistributor bridges the gap between food suppliers and small to midsized independent distributors. A redistributor will buy large truckload quantities, efficiently meeting product minimums from food suppliers and appealing to their optimal logistics strategy. Meanwhile, a redistributor will sell to small to medium-sized independent distributors in smaller quantities more frequently, sometimes even multiple times per week. This allows food suppliers to reach small to mid-sized independent distributors that thrive on the small quantities frequently business model.

Reaching New Geographies

In addition to reaching customers who can’t meet the product minimums required to buy directly, working with a food service redistributor can allow you to expand into new geographies. Honor Foods’ service area is 3-4 times larger than most. Honor Foods often visits everywhere from Texas to Chicago. This allows Honor Foods to access your product at a warehouse in Boston and get it to Houston quickly, often on trucking routes that already exist. If you don’t already have trucking routes in place, that can be difficult. Honor Foods has the advantage of a large storage facility in Philadelphia. Honor Foods also has Sunny Morning locations in Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando, FL. This provides us with easy and frequent access to the southeast market, a market that offers many opportunities for food suppliers.

Introducing Your Product to New Categories

In addition, Honor Foods serves many categories, the largest being dairy. Because of the short shelf life of dairy, dairy distributors often visit end users more frequently. While they likely don’t buy enough of your category for you to service them directly, they can be a great entry into getting new customers to try your product. If an end user runs out of products or wants something quickly, a dairy distributor can get it from Honor Foods and get it to them quickly at a low minimum.

In addition, Honor Foods serves customers others don’t. Examples of non-traditional customers include produce houses, bakery distributors, dairies, C-Stores, and manufacturers who use our products as ingredients. These are in addition to the broad-line community that we service. That said, the broad-liner remains the core of Honor Foods’ business model.

Working with a Foodservice Partner Offering Freight Brokerage

One of the biggest factors that sets us apart is how our brands can work together to solve tough supply chain problems. Trinity Logistics, our freight brokerage brand, is able to work with Honor Foods to help expand their delivery area, get products moved quickly, etc. Trinity Logistics is a leader in freight brokerage, and having a redistribution Partner that has a sister company specializing in getting freight where you need it to be when you need it to be there is a huge competitive advantage.

Conclusion

Working with a redistribution Partner like Honor Foods can open up many doors for food suppliers. Whether it is simplifying logistics, servicing “hard to service” customers, or introducing food suppliers to new market segments, redistribution can be a great way to meet unknown customers that is convenient for both you and them.