Food Broker Insights: A Playbook for Emerging Brands

You’ve got a fantastic product—the DTC store hums. Reviews are glowing. Now you want a spot on a national shelf.

Good—know the bar keeps rising. Retailers are fielding more pitches while private label grabs a record share, making differentiation and execution non-negotiable. (In the first half of 2024, store brands hit 20.4% dollar share and 22.9% unit share in the U.S.)

And competition for buyer attention is real. Walmart’s 2025 Open Call alone welcomed 500+ entrepreneurs to pitch in two days. That’s one retailer, one event.

Here’s a practical, supplier-friendly playbook to make your next pitch easier to say “yes” to—and to stay profitable after the win.

1) Start with retailer fit (before you email a buyer)

Different banners, different shoppers, different rules.

• Who’s the core shopper? If your positioning hinges on premium attributes, you’ll present differently at Kroger vs. Dollar General.

• Assortment reality check: What’s on the shelf now? Where’s the gap—price tier, pack size, flavor, dietary need?

• Shelf + ops constraints: Cold chain, case pack minimums, regional DC coverage—deal breakers if ignored.

Fictional example (for illustration only): A premium salsa brand pursued a value chain with a $5.99 MSRP and glass jars that blew the weight/cube budget. A pivot to 12-oz PET and a $4.49 price point unlocked a 200-store test. (Fictional scenario.)

2) Prove demand (with numbers buyers can trust)

Retailers don’t buy “potential”—they buy evidence.

• Velocity and repeat: Show units per store per week (VPSW) and reorder rates from regional independents.

• Retail-adjacent proof: DTC + marketplace sales, reviews, and subscriber retention.

• Comparable wins: If you’ve grown from 10 to 75 stores at a regional chain, highlight the playbook (promo cadence, displays, demos) that drove it.

3) Get your retail math right (so the item is profitable)

Margins break when DTC pricing is copied and pasted into retail. Sanity-check with simple math:

• Formula: Retailer cost = MSRP × (1 − retailer margin).If a distributor is involved: Manufacturer net = Retailer cost × (1 − distributor margin).

• Illustrative example: MSRP $5.49, retailer margin 35% → retailer pays $3.57. With a 15% distributor margin, the manufacturer nets $3.03. If COGS is $1.80, gross margin is $1.23 (~40.7%). Reserve ~15% for trade spend and you’re left with ~25.7% operating margin—tight but workable for many categories. (Illustrative only; your numbers will vary.)

4) Be “retail-ready” on compliance and data

Buyers love items that won’t create headaches downstream. Nail the basics:

• GS1 identifiers: Get legitimate GTINs (Global Trade Item Numbers) and pair them with GS1-issued UPC barcodes—these are the product IDs retailers trust.

• Case + pallet specs: Confirm case pack, master carton labels, TI/HI, and ship testing.

• EDI/ASN + routing: Ensure you (or your 3PL) can send an Advanced Ship Notice (ASN) and ship on-time, in-full (OTIF)—a core metric many retailers watch closely.

• QA + claims: Have a defect/returns SOP, with lot tracking and recall readiness.

5) Build a pitch that makes “yes” easy

Buyers are busy. Your job is to remove friction.

What to include:

• One-page snapshot: Who you are, the consumer problem you solve, and why this retailer’s customer will love it.

• Assortment logic: Where it sits, what it replaces (or complements), and how it ladders into their strategy (price tier, health, flavor, pack).

• Proof deck: Velocity, repeat, retail wins, and a clean P&L with margin waterfalls.

• Commercial plan: Intro SRP/MSRP, promo plan, display plan, and a first-90-days execution calendar.

6) Plan the first 90 days like a campaign

Landing the PO is the starting line.

• Week 0–2: Item setup/QC, image specs, GS1 data sync, content live on .com.

• Week 2–6: Seed displays or cross-merch, activate promos, align field team/store walks.

• Week 6–12: Read sales weekly, tune price-packs, and fix compliance misses before they snowball into deductions.

Quick “Shelf-Ready” Checklist

• GS1 GTINs/UPCs are issued and valid.

• Case labels, TI/HI, 3P ship testing completed.

• ASN/EDI capability; OTIF plan with carrier SLAs.

• Clean pricing waterfall: MSRP → retailer/distributor → manufacturer net → trade spend.

• Velocity + repeat data from current accounts.

• 90-day promo + display plan aligned to category seasonality.

• Customer-ready content (images, copy, claims, nutrition) for .com and planograms.

Why urgency matters right now

Private label continues to surge—U.S. store-brand sales hit $271B in 2024 and are projected even higher in 2025—so your item must show an apparent reason to exist. And while online grocery keeps growing, in-store still dominates the weekly shop, so the shelf is where you win awareness at scale. (eGrocery sales hit $9.6B in Dec. 2024—growing, but still a slice of the total.)

Final word

Getting onto shelves isn’t luck; it’s repeatable work. Fit the banner, prove demand, do retail pricing math, and execute cleanly. Do that—and you give buyers fewer reasons to say “no” and more reasons to expand your footprint.

Woodridge Retail Group helps suppliers navigate buyer expectations, compliance, and post-launch execution. If you want a second set of eyes on your retail math or pitch, we’re happy to help—zero pressure.