how to start a wholesale business in uk?

Question

food whokesale/building materials wholesale

Answer 1

"Wholesaling consists of the sale of goods/merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services (WTO - World Trade Organization)" [wiki]

In other words, you act as a 'middle man' between the Manufacturers and the Retailers etc..

Your existence depends on sourcing goods & services at a lower price and selling them on at a higher price.

The questions is, why should anyone purchase from you at a high(er) price rather than go direct to the Manufacturers themselves ?

This is a question DELL, B&Q, Homebase, Tesco etc. all answered long ago, and one that other Companies are addressing today ...

Traditionally the Wholesale 'middle man' would either buy in bulk and sell in small batches or would provide services such as Importing that the Retailers either could not afford or could not be bothered to do.

These days almost ANYONE can Import a Container load direct from the Chinese Manufacturers themesleves and cut the Wholesaler out of the loop.

The only chance now-a-days is to find a 'niche' service you can provide that others can not - for example Aircraft spare parts have to be sourced via a certificated 'chain' of approved buyers/sellers - thus only those with Licences can buy/sell the parts.

So that's one route - get Governmenmt Approval to Import/Export goods that others do not have (other examples would be Arms Dealers, Explosives / Fireworks dealers etc).

Another idea might be to focus on 'non-traditional items' - for example People - the Agency that 'imports' Polish Plumbers could be said to be a 'people wholesaler' !

Good Luck !

Answer 2

Hi,

your best bet would be to check out these sites for wholesalers and dropshippers:


USA : http://usatrade.url40.net

Canada : http://cndatrade.url40.net

UK : http://uktrade.url40.net

For all other countries: http://worldwide.url40.net


They are not only top rated but also provide 100s of wholesale providers for every niche and category. I have used these before, the wholesalers have low order quantities and you can get some real bargains on there, plus saved loads from their clearance deals.


Best wishes
Emma

Answer 3

1

Answer 4

I agree with the last answer, http://ukbusiness.url40.net seems to be the best site around for these