Foodservice & Non-Retail Channels

Foodservice is the channel most emerging CPG brands ignore, usually because it is unfamiliar rather than because it is a bad fit. The buying process is different, the distributors are different, and the packaging is often different — but the margin structure can be considerably better than grocery, and the volume is less dependent on winning a shelf review against entrenched competition.

It is genuinely a different business. Contract feeders, broadline distributors, and on-premise accounts each buy differently, and the specification and pack-size requirements rarely match your retail SKU. Brands that succeed here typically build a foodservice-specific pack rather than trying to sell the retail unit into a channel that does not want it.

The posts here cover how foodservice distribution actually works, the major distributors and contract feeders and how they buy, on-premise and RTD channels, managing brokers in a channel where they operate differently, and evaluating whether the channel is worth the operational fork for your brand.