honey standards

[hedgerow pete]

I have just come away from a meeting with two health food shops, whom I am hoping will sell my honey next year both are top line shops and are wanting to sell my honey for stupid prices to stupid people, BUT

They want a serious honey to sell not my usual set up.
I have to sort a new honey jar shape out, no real trouble there just a higher outlay
I have to have a much better label design, thats were you lot come in
I have to have a set minium of jars at a certain time, hard, but can me done
and lastly they want to pay in cash, WHOOPIE

the down side is processing honey or more to the point filtering my honey to a competition standard, I am going through the search button here and else where, but can anyone suggest any ideas?

secondly, to get the labels printed is not an issue as there are many printers localy I can use, is there or does anyone know or deal with someone that can produce the label art work for me, its not to complex just two maybe three colours,

can you help???

 

[beeboybee]

labels

pete send me some doodles of your labels or some example that you like and i will sort out a design for you just find a printer and ask them what format they want the design in normally EPD or Adobe Illustrator

 

[beeboybee]

sorry should have typed EPS not EPD

 

[RoofTops]

How fine do they want it filtered? Some of the "supermarket" stuff is micro-filtered to remove any pollen but I can't see a health food shop wanting that. I would have thought a fine nylon mesh as sold by many supplier will suffice. It will remove all visible bits.

Quality control will be an issue - if they want runny what do they do if it starts crystalising? Again, the supermarket stuff is pasturized to give it a long shelf life as runny honey before setting. Set honey it will need to be spot on - no frosting or coarse crystals.

Good luck, but I suspect they may be demanding customers.

 

[BKF Admin]

I would say it depends on what they want.
If they want the most naural product they can get then they should take what you offer.

If they want A1 presentation with no bent bananas then maybe they should buy from Gales..

Its a natural product you are offering them,the only way to get what they seem to want is for them to buy in a micro filtered heated unnatural product.

 

[hedgerow pete]

what they have asked for is two sorts one as a creamed honey which is easy enough given the right power drill and tempature, but there runny honey thay want it to be clear, where mine at the moment would be descibed as frosted, I dont know if they want micro filtered as that is way out of my price range totaly, I am planning to get several test bottles done for them filtered to three or four ways and say that is it choose which one, I have no intention of jumping through impossible hoops for yuppies

what they are looking for is a low carbon input product that ticks all the green and eco boxs that can be sold to an idiot with more money than sense, and for him to have a warm eco feeling when he leaves the shop, it has to be in a pretty bottle as well

 

[RoofTops]

If your runny is a bit frosted, which is hardly unexpected at this time of year, (most of mine in buckets has gone solid) then I would just warm it up to about 50C for a short while. It won't harm it and they will get a nice crystal clear product. You will need to melt it anyway to get it through the filter cloth.

I sell some of mine to a shop in Salcombe (v. pricy place to live) and if any runny starts to go off I just bring it back and re-bottle it after warming. I have tried warming it in the jar but you get lots of bubbles on the top of the honey and the lid can bulge. Better to write off the labels and empty the honey back into a bucket - but I re-use the jar and lid after washing and sterilizing in the oven.

I would suggest putting up a small sign near the honey in the shops describing its "green" credentials. You could also fix a leaflet to every jar with a rubber band. I keep meaning to do this but haven't got round to it yet. It will help to sell to those who want to know where their food comes from.

 

[Tom Bick]

I think perhaps look for a different shop no point working for people if you are not completely happy with them all the long hours working on your existing adventure being grumpy towards the client believe me thats not good. You still have to sort that labeling bit sell by date, batch no, produce of ect ect
Good luck with it pete hope your bees fill plenty of buckets for you

 

[Chris B]

what they are looking for is a low carbon input product that ticks all the green and eco boxs that can be sold to an idiot with more money than sense, and for him to have a warm eco feeling when he leaves the shop, it has to be in a pretty bottle as well

Are you related to Gerald Rattner?

 

[Black Comb]

Pete
In my experience of business to business sales the ideal customer does not exist. If they did I would look for 3 things :-
1. High Margin
2. Quick Payment
3. Easy to deal with.

You are going to get 1 and 2 here. To achieve these extra sales you may have to put up with 3.

As a generally laid back guy I am sure you will cope.

Believe me 1 and 2 are the most important.

Good luck.

 

[hedgerow pete]

I wont go into figures but percent wise they are looking to add 50% onto my price before sale, and my prices are very high to these two any way so money wise it could work depending on how stupidly they require the honey filtering

 

[Hombre]

Do I take it that these two shops are not commercially related to each other Pete?

Sounds like it could a very good deal you have managed to cleverly negotiate.

 

[hedgerow pete]

to put it very bluntly the two partners i was speaking about are owners of three shops and are partners to each other as well so no need to woory about keeping them seperate

 

[Hombre]

They sounded very much like corporations from the required specifications. Perhaps there is more wiggle room. Very good, if the price is right - come on down.

8oz, 12oz, and 1lb sizes or just one size? Hex jars or something totally different?
= = =
In a meeting like that, when they supply coffee from the vending machine, you just know that the standards they are demanding are open to slight negotiation.

 

[hedgerow pete]

the coffee supplied was fair traded , eco , left handed coffee beans ground by poor people with a lisp, and then shipped by carrier pigeon using zero carbon thingys to the uk, did i ever mention I hate coffee and only drink tetley tea!!!

what they are asking for is one single size of 450gms( a pound in old english)
glassware is the simple kilner jar set up of swing lids, every thing else in the shop comes in a kilner jar as it looks home made!!!
they might want a fabric top in something blue or green they are looking into that but its down to me to supply and fit