European customers deserve the highest quality products from around the world!

With this mindset, I went to an international food fair for the first time in 2016 with the aim of finding the latest and highest quality ingredients for creating my recipes for healthy foods and nutritional supplements.

Since then, I have traveled the world from Tokyo to Los Angeles just to always have an overview and the latest information directly from the manufacturers of branded ingredients. However, I have found that purchasing ingredients for me as a European food manufacturer is often unnecessarily complicated.

I have identified three key factors:

1. International fairs

A proven way to make yourself known for years. However, in today's digital age, it is starting to lose its effectiveness. First of all, it is a time-, energy- and, above all, financially demanding event for both participants and exhibitors. Three days is a very short time for decision makers to find time and participate on the given date. After participating in dozens of trade fairs and contacting more than 3,000 exhibitors, I know that the price/performance ratio will never meet their expectations.

2. Middle distributors

Perhaps the biggest problem during my career as a food technologist was the necessity to buy raw materials not directly from the manufacturer, but from a so-called middle distributor, who requested exclusivity for an agreed location. It would be fine if he provided me as a buyer with some advantage. For example, the goods are always in stock with him, shortened delivery times, customer support, consultations when creating recipes, purchasing smaller quantities than from the manufacturer, and so on. However, none of this was ever true. If I painstakingly found an interesting ingredient, the manufacturer directed me to the "exclusive distributor" for my location. The result was that I had to buy raw materials unnecessarily at a much higher price, which made the end product practically unaffordable, I had to pay the pro forma invoice in advance, including his margins, and then wait for him to buy the goods from the manufacturer and the manufacturer to send them directly to me for production.

Effect: unnecessarily overpriced raw material, which the buyer ultimately cannot afford anyway and has to look for another supplier.

THE SAME APPLIES TO BRANDED FOOD AND COSMETICS MANUFACTURERS. LOOK FOR THE MOST DIRECT PATH TO YOUR BUSINESS PARTNER!

3. Manufacturers where are you?

Goods that you will never show or sell. Today, thanks to technology, there are new, effective ways to connect with your B2B partner. Those who use these methods will be one step ahead of their competition and gain new long-term customers.

4.Absence of a qualified representative in the given location

You need to take care of your clients regularly and provide them with top-notch customer service and expertise so that they know your product perfectly, its benefits and, most importantly, how it will help them achieve their goals. If a customer does not feel your support and feels like they are just being pressured into buying, you will never win them over and if you do, you will quickly lose them. To prevent this from happening, you need to have your own representative, a real live person, not some AI agent, call support or chatbot, who is an expert in the given issue and can provide the required help and support when necessary. This improves your relationships with customers and increases your credibility