Has anyone got any contacts to get in touch with the buying team of Tops Supermarket.

We are trying to introduce Indian Brand Curry Sauces and would like to start with Tops Supermarket and then Villa Supermarket.

Can anyone please put some light as to how to approach them ?

are you a manufacturer or product relaxer?

Have you sold to retail stores before? There's just one important term in retail store sales.

Shelf Space.

Look how crowded the shelves are. Everyone vying for space. For them to put your product in, they'd have to take someone else's out. That's possible and that would be a low seller.

See, every inch of Shelf Space in that store has to pay its way. Every inch. The most valuable thing in that store is Shelf Space.

At best they'd probably test your product in a limited number of stores to see if it would sell well. They expect you to market it with outside advertising. Note that the products with the most Shelf Space are widely marketed on TV etc. and they are big sellers already. You aren't going to get any of their Shelf Space.

If you do manage to get a bit of Shelf Space and your product doesn't turn over very quickly you will be gone. No More Shelf Space.

Cheers.

Have you ever talked to management at both these stores, Not the Sharpest knives in the drawer, only had interaction in Udon, Not Impressed, Good Luck

http://www.tops.co.th/en/TalkToUs.aspx

Might be a good start.

Grow aset and walk in and do the business they can only say no.

They already know what sells and what doesn't sell. If Indian curry sauces were a good product they would be on the shelf.

I know one brand they don't stock anymore is 'Prakitrat' or some name like that, it was in the purple packets .... I tried it a couple of times and it was quite good, however obviously there's not a big enough market for them so they have been taken out ....

Go into the store and speak to the management, they maybe able to give you their contact for sales & marketing who should know what you need to do.

They already know what sells and what doesn't sell. If Indian curry sauces were a good product they would be on the shelf.

Yes, it's amazing isn't it? Thai's don't buy Indian curry sauces and Villa while caters to foreigners has missed the market for some reason. Stores are suffering all over, what few they have. Tops does have the gourmet sector in various malls but I seriously doubt curry sauces are what people go there intending to buy and it also isn't an impulse item. That leaves specialty shops which are also usually doing a supplier business to restaurants. I'd suggest you try and find said shops and present your product for consideration to them rather than shooting for the moon with Tops and Villa. Good luck. There's always teaching English in the provinces if this fails to generate enough income. Bring a copy of your University degree and transcripts and a current police report.

Do you have thai FDA approval? for villa, maybe they aren't so strict, but for Tops or any other properly run store, you'll need one

Expect to pay 30,000+ per product to get your products on shelf, and if your product didn't sell after 3-4 months they could discontinue and your 'listing fee' to be gone with no recourse...

Should you sell well, they might ask you to join their sales promotion, go on the brochure, for a fee of course

Have in mind a price for both sales with 'no return' and 'returns' returns means if the product were damaged, went out of date or didn't sell for whatever reason the store can ring you up and ask you to take them back no question asked.

How long for credit can you cope with, 90 days is the norm

Don't walk into store, find out about their headquarter, websites are available, most store branch have no authority for decision to negotiate terms and such, at best they'll pass your detail to the relevant department, but that just shows that you don't do your homework, expect to be laughed out of the store if you just walk in without idea of who to contact

The Corporate Buying offices are located in Bangkok. Tops is part of the Central Group.

Both companies if interested will require a slotting allowance, this is money you have to pay to gain space on there shelves, its common practice in all countries. It Guarantees nothing. Then you will, be given a period of time to sale the product in the stores ( or possibly a few stores), if it meets the companies requirement for sales per this category, then they may keep it on full time. If it does not sale well then the item will be dropped and all leftover product will be discounted to move or tossed out.

My experience with both Villa and Central group is they only want to carry brand names when the product is coming from out of Country. If your making the product here you better find a This sales representative to offer the product in your behalf or you won't stand a chance.

If you are a re-seller don't bother at all.

They probably not deal with middle men, certainly no jack the lad who thinks they will get a handsome cut for introducing them to them to a supplier or someone who will purchase from a Cash & Carry in their own country, put in a box and post.

More probably they deal with manufactures and suppliers with a proven record of importing into Thailand, I doubt the OP has any experience of this and has just alerted every manufacturer and distributor of curry sources to his marketing plan.

Reminds me of the guy who phoned me yesterday, told me he worked ICANN and telling me he can get me a recently expired domain, he had done his research and it was certainly a good investment at £199 (9950B) even if it was keeping it out of the hands of competitors, during the conversation his story changed, he now worked for a company that was approved by ICANN... my suspicion that he was someone trying to make a quick buck by scanning lists of recently expired domains turned out to be true, telling him to call back later so I could think about it.

As soon as I put the phone down, I check it out, first I Google his phone number, bit surprised there were no warnings that he was a scammer, or the fact the phone number did not come up with a company name.

So did a domain search and it was still available so bought it for £0.99 (49B).

Blackmail may work good luck