Will a bakery’s wholesale accounts stay after I buy it?

Café, grocer and restaurant accounts can be the steadiest part of a bakery. They can also be the most fragile, because they often rest on one friendly relationship. Before you assume they will stay, find out what the seller has with each account, who talks to the buyer’s side and what would make the customer look elsewhere. Ask early, since the answers shape your offer and your plan.

Written or handshake?

Ask for a list of accounts and, for each, whether there is a written agreement, how long it runs and whether it can be assigned. Many wholesale arrangements are informal; ask your lawyer what that means for a transfer. Your lawyer can read any contract for consent or termination clauses.

Who holds the relationship?

Ask who takes orders, who delivers and who a chef or café owner calls with a problem. If the answer is the seller, the account is tied to the seller. If it is a driver or a manager who is staying, the account is tied to the business. Our page on handing a bakery over to a new owner covers introductions from the seller’s side.

Meet the customers before closing

Ask the seller to introduce you to the larger accounts as part of the sale, and agree how that happens. A call or a visit tells you more than a list does. Ask each customer what they value, what they would change and whether they plan to keep buying. Keep the seller’s confidentiality in mind and ask before you contact anyone.

Keep the product and service steady

Accounts leave when the loaf changes, the delivery time slips or an invoice is wrong. Plan to keep recipes, drop times and contacts as they are during the handover. Watch the first weeks of orders closely, and call any account that goes quiet. Our page on what to do in the first month gives a fuller plan.