Getting Your Specialty Food Product Onto Store Shelves: The Ultimate Wholesale How-To Guide for Artisan Food Companies

Book excerpt: Many small food business owners dream of seeing their products on store shelves, but how to get onto those shelves is a mystery. Focused specifically on specialty food businesses that don't have millions of marketing dollars at their disposal, this book unravels that mystery for food entrepreneurs, offering tactical tips, insight, and short stories of entrepreneurs who have been in your place and succeeded. Topics include: * Understanding the wholesale industry and the roles that brokers and distributors play * Pricing products appropriately so that you can grow and make money * In-depth insight into a variety of wholesale food channels, covering what you need to know and how you should approach specialty stores, supermarkets, club stores, and even food service and hospitality * How and why you should support your retailers to ensure you stay on the shelf * Information on labeling regulations and packaging guidelines to ensure your product gets noticed by customers and conforms with FDA requirements * Definitions and explanations of common wholesale and promotional terminology * Creating sales sheets that help your product sell-and samples to help guide you * The role trade shows play and how to make the most of them