Local wholesalers

Most towns and cities will have one or more local wholesalers that supply largely to the catering and retail trade.

The main advantage with local wholesalers as with wholesale markets is that they offer a wide range of produce and so you will probably be able to get everything you want in one place.

But if you are interested in locally produced food, although many wholesalers sell some local and UK produce they usually do not promote this and it is hard to tell from product lists where produce has been grown or raised

Local wholesalers generally offer free delivery and will deliver quite small amounts if it you are in their current delivery routes.

But as with many other suppliers they will generally prefer to deliver in whole boxes and if they have to split a box or supply only a few of each item they will charge a lot more for this than a whole box. It is not untypical for a local wholesaler to put on a 20% mark-up, for smaller amounts meaning that it will be harder for you to offer produce at very affordable prices.

Sustain 2012   E: foodcoops@sustainweb.org   T: 020 7837 1228
Text size: larger / smaller