How do I find out how a roastery’s wholesale cafe accounts are served?
Ask the seller to walk you through one full week of wholesale service: how cafes order, who roasts, who delivers, who answers when a machine or order goes wrong, and how each account pays. Then ride along on a delivery day and speak with a few cafe owners.
Wholesale is a service business as much as a product one. Ask for the account list with each cafe’s usual order, delivery day and contact name. See how orders arrive, whether by text, email or a standing order, and who on the team handles them.
Look at the payment side. The receivables and payables reports show which cafes pay on time and which ones carry a balance. Ask whether the roastery lends or leases equipment, offers training or fixes machines for any cafe, since those extras can matter to the account as much as the beans. Spend time on a delivery day. You will see how the routes work, how much the driver knows each cafe, and whether the relationships rest on the owner personally. If the owner is the main face to every cafe, ask how introductions will happen. If you plan to use a broker, ask them to help set up the questions and the introductions with accounts. Also ask how complaints are handled, such as a late bag or a wrong grind, and how often they happen, since service quality shows in how problems are fixed.
Key takeaways
- Get the account list with usual orders, delivery days and contacts.
- Review receivables to see which cafes pay promptly.
- Ride along on a delivery day and ask how much rests on the owner.
- Ask how complaints from cafes are handled.
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Sources
This answer is checked against primary sources. Links were last confirmed on the dates shown.
- 01Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentAccounts receivable
- 02Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentWhat are accounts payable?
- 03Business Development Bank of CanadaGovernmentHow to conduct due diligence when buying a business
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