Food Brokers

Food brokers handle a diverse mix of products. Brokerages support three types of products: small niche-market specialty products, medium regional products and manufacturers and large national manufacturers.

Small niche-market specialty products

Most new food products fall into the small, niche-market of specialty products. Although these products usually need the assistance of a broker more than regional or national products, they represent only about 5 percent of the revenue of the broker. Thus, food brokers usually represent four or five small products but cannot dedicate as much time and effort to them as they do to larger clients.

Regional Products

Regional products often have a district manager who works with a broker to establish sales. The district manager often accompanies the broker on sales calls and sets up monthly or quarterly meetings to help develop a good customer base. Regional products generate approximately 25 percent of monthly sales at brokerage firms and produce a significant number of the products brokers represent.

National Products

Brokerage firms working with large national product accounts have executives that devote most of their time to particular products of a manufacturer. The added time and attention given to these large companies are well worth the effort because four or five national products might represent up to 70 percent of the income of a brokerage firm.

Never Easy

The ideal client of a food broker is a large, established manufacturer with established sales and demand trends. The lack of this knowledge and information makes it difficult for new market entrants to hire an effective broker. A new product needs to be unique and profitable.