Help Please, Ebay Advice

[Nick Luck]

Hi Everyone

Ive been reading all the forums recently and its has been a great help, so would first like to thank everyone who comments and gives good solid advice for those of us in the early stages of our business life.

I've been building a wholesale fruit and vegetable supplier business over the last couple of years and its going ok so far. I basically buy all my stock to order at a local wholesale markets and supply takeaways and restaurants in my local area with fresh produce.

Recently the cost of wholesale fresh produce and gone up so much, with some products costing double and sometimes triple what they used to cost when i first started out. Whilst there is always price fluctuations with this product, as with all commodities, I have lost a good few customers due to my prices being so high. They are now shopping at large chain cash and carries and even supermarkets to cut down on cost. Which i can understand, as they are just trying to manage their business. With brexit now coming up within the next few months, im pretty certain the price of wholesale fruits and vegetables are going to hit the roof. Even if we do make a deal, there is still going to be tariffs on imports. As most of the fresh produce available on uk wholesale markets comes from Holland and Spain, I would imagine we would be looking at paying between 25% - 50% extra, on top of already sky high prices.

Ive cut this business down to three days a week, I do deliveries on Mon - Wed - Friday. The customers that I supply on these days are pretty loyal and I think I have built good enough relationships and rapport with them so hopefully they will still buy off me even when prices do increase again.

Anyway, I now have a part time business, which im happy with but not really making enough income to get by anymore. So my plan for 2019 is to build another 1 or hopefully 2 small part time businesses. I dont care about becoming a millionaire, my objective is to have three small businesses which each generate a profit of around £300 a week. I have one already, so now I need to build two more.

Ive recently started buying and selling a few bits and bobs on Ebay and can really see the potential in e - commerce. The thing is, like most people, finding good wholesalers is like finding a needle in a hay stack. Im selling vintage clothes at the moment, I searched on google for weeks before I picked a wholesaler to work with, but due to being brand new to this product I think I paid a bit more than I should have for my stock. I think this was a good learning curve and I now have an idea of the clothing market on ebay. I have chosen a few niches to sell, but I cant find any good wholesalers to buy stock from.

So if anyone knows anyone in the clothing business or can point me in the right direction for wholesale suppliers of the following

Used Berghaus or North Face coats - cream or grade A
Used trainers - Nike or Adidas or any other brand that retailed for £60/70 +
Branded customer returns, not high street but more designer
Ex display trainers (really interested in these)
Ex display clothing (really interested in these)
High end factory reject, nike - Armani - North Face ect ect

I would really really appreciate it. I would also really welcome any other ideas of small part time businesses to start that can generate a profit of around £300 a week. Thanks in advance for anyone that comments. Have a great day.

Nick

 

[The Byre]

If you want to succeed, do one thing well (and not three things in a half-arsed manner!)

Your fresh veg problem is not sales, but where you are buying stuff. The restaurants and takeaways can go to wholesale markets themselves - they don't need you!

You should be buying from the people that grow the vegetables in the first place. And if you need to diversify, start selling meat. You can buy a finished and butchered adult sheep cut up already into joints and burgers for £150.

Yes we had a bad year and the price of onions has sky-rocketed. But never fear - next year something else will go wrong!

Brexit? Don't worry, it ain't gonna happen! It' the Millennium Bug all over again! Or as HG Wells put it "Today's crisis is tomorrow's joke!"

 

[Nick Luck]

Thanks for your reply

Yes I agree with you, restaurants and takeaway owners can go to wholesale market themselves. The thing is, fruit and veg markets usually start at 2.00 am and start to wind down around 6.00 - 7.00am so unless they want to wake up at 5.00 am and go to an open air market in the freezing cold british winter, thats not really an option for them. If they did go to the market themselves, they dont have the same buying power and relationships as i do so they will not be getting things as cheap as me. I probably spend 20 x what they will be spending. So maybe they would save £20/30/40 or maybe even £50 if they are busy, but who can be bothered to get out of bed at 5.00 am to save that kind of money? They are making good money so why bother, they prefer to be at home in bed with their wives. Yes some tight people will do it, but tight customers are not the type of customers I want to be dealing with.

Things such as onions you mentioned, specifically ducth onions, are impossible to go directly to growers to purchase from as its usually 1 container minimum order. I usually shift half a pallet of dutch onions in one week, give or take so a full container is not an option for me. Im not interested in the meat business and my gf is a veggie so that is not really an option for me either.

Also I was starting to get bored of driving around all day everyday and the thought of working on multiple businesses and having multiple income streams really does appeal to me

Im not sure I agree with you about brexit not happening. Thats what the people voted for and I'm afraid I dont have much faith in Theresa May.

Thanks for your comment, I do take onboard what you say about doing one thing well. Have a nice day.

 

[antropy]

If you want to succeed, do one thing well (and not three things in a half-arsed manner!)

Your fresh veg problem is not sales, but where you are buying stuff. The restaurants and takeaways can go to wholesale markets themselves - they don't need you!

You should be buying from the people that grow the vegetables in the first place. And if you need to diversify, start selling meat. You can buy a finished and butchered adult sheep cut up already into joints and burgers for £150.

Yes we had a bad year and the price of onions has sky-rocketed. But never fear - next year something else will go wrong!

Brexit? Don't worry, it ain't gonna happen! It' the Millennium Bug all over again! Or as HG Wells put it "Today's crisis is tomorrow's joke!"

I completely agree that being a master of one, rather than a jack of all trades is better. If you don't enjoying the driving around all day then probably best to can that side of the business and focus on out of those 3 you most enjoy. Alex

 

[The Byre]

If they did go to the market themselves, they dont have the same buying power and relationships as i do so they will not be getting things as cheap as me. I probably spend 20 x what they will be spending. So maybe they would save £20/30/40 or maybe even £50 if they are busy, but who can be bothered to get out of bed at 5.00 am to save that kind of money?

You make a very good point!

Back in my student days (around 49BC) I paid for my studies by driving an artic-truck for a fruit & veg wholesaler. My run was to supply a chain of 20 largish local supermarkets, plus a couple of military bases. This was in Germany and I had to drive c.a. 100km to the rail-head in Koblenz at night, load up with about 15-20 tons of stuff and re-load onto 7.5-ton trucks from a smaller company for delivery.

F&V it seems is all about speed and scale. The company I worked for went under - they were just too small! The local competition survived for a long time by buying direct from Spain and Italy, but with time, they too hit the wall and were bought out. The vertical integration of the F&V market just was inevitable. In my day, the farmers sold to an export agent, who sold to in international wholesaler, who sold to us, who sold to a distributor, who sold to the supermarkets, who sold to the customer! That's five intermediaries!!!

Now that market is served by Aldi, Lidl and Edeka and there is either just one wholesaler, or none, as the supermarkets reach further down the chain and buy direct. The local restaurants in that area either buy the wilted old veg at the Edeka wholesale outlet, or they go to the local farmers' market that takes place twice a week, much the same as the markets you mention.

IMO, there still is room for local wholesalers who buy from local sources only, providing a fresher and more specialist service for those restaurants that want to serve something just that little bit better! But you are right - it's a struggle and there is a very cold wind blowing in the grocery aisles!

 

[Nick Luck]

You make a very good point!

Back in my student days (around 49BC) I paid for my studies by driving an artic-truck for a fruit & veg wholesaler. My run was to supply a chain of 20 largish local supermarkets, plus a couple of military bases. This was in Germany and I had to drive c.a. 100km to the rail-head in Koblenz at night, load up with about 15-20 tons of stuff and re-load onto 7.5-ton trucks from a smaller company for delivery.

F&V it seems is all about speed and scale. The company I worked for went under - they were just too small! The local competition survived for a long time by buying direct from Spain and Italy, but with time, they too hit the wall and were bought out. The vertical integration of the F&V market just was inevitable. In my day, the farmers sold to an export agent, who sold to in international wholesaler, who sold to us, who sold to a distributor, who sold to the supermarkets, who sold to the customer! That's five intermediaries!!!

Now that market is served by Aldi, Lidl and Edeka and there is either just one wholesaler, or none, as the supermarkets reach further down the chain and buy direct. The local restaurants in that area either buy the wilted old veg at the Edeka wholesale outlet, or they go to the local farmers' market that takes place twice a week, much the same as the markets you mention.

IMO, there still is room for local wholesalers who buy from local sources only, providing a fresher and more specialist service for those restaurants that want to serve something just that little bit better! But you are right - it's a struggle and there is a very cold wind blowing in the grocery aisles!

 

[Nick Luck]

Thanks for your comments guys

The Byre, yes you are right. The supermarkets are killing this industry by cutting out any middle men and going directly to the growers.

What business are you in these days if you dont mind me asking?

 

[Mr D]

Thanks for your comments guys

The Byre, yes you are right. The supermarkets are killing this industry by cutting out any middle men and going directly to the growers.

What business are you in these days if you dont mind me asking?

Can you go directly to the growers too?

 

[Nick Luck]

Not for most of the pruducts. Its usualy 1 container minimum order and I dont shift that kind of quantity per week

 

[Mr D]

Not for most of the pruducts. Its usualy 1 container minimum order and I dont shift that kind of quantity per week

Darn. I'm years away from commercial production to order and in client quantities.