BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Business development
EFC helps companies from outside the EU operate and grow in Europe and around the world. Business development is part of that: we find the chains and distributors that could carry your product, name who decides, and work those contacts with you month after month. In Europe, we run import, storage and delivery from Portugal.
Request a call back- Buyers
- Retail chains and distributors
- Operating base
- Portugal, inside the EU customs union
- Working
- With you, month after month
- Always yours
- Your prices, contracts and customers
Business development at EFC is steady work. We stay with the buyers we find and keep working them with you, month after month, while in Europe we run the import, storage and delivery side. The research is also available on its own, and working the contacts afterwards is agreed separately.
Working together
How we work with you
We can work with you month after month, or deliver the research on its own.
- Over time
- We do the research first, then keep working the contacts it produces with you, month after month. Working this way, the research is included, with nothing to buy beforehand
- The research alone
- The research is also available on its own, and working the contacts afterwards is agreed separately
Either way, the same team does the research on your product.
How we start, where you sign off, and how we report back are on How the engagement runs.
The combination
Why finding buyers and supplying them go together
Selling and shipping are often run by different firms. We plan them together around what the buyer needs, so the buyer gets one answer.
When they are kept apart, someone has to connect what the buyer asks for with the stock, the import and the delivery. That usually falls to you, in the market you know least. We take it on with you, within the scope we agree at the start.
Buyers ask about lead time, who imports the goods, and what happens on a return. We can answer in the first meeting, because in Europe we run that side ourselves.
The markets
Where we do this work
We work the same way in every market. What changes is who buys, when they decide, and what a supplier must hold before the first order, so each market has its own page.
- Europe
- Retail chains, wholesalers and category distributors across the European markets we agree with you, supplied from our base in Portugal inside the EU customs union. Shelf decisions are taken in category review windows, so an approach is timed to the window rather than to next week. Business development in Europe
- The United States
- Retailers, their private label ranges and the national distributors. A broker never takes title; a distributor buys and warehouses. No major US retailer publishes its review calendar, so we find the timing account by account. Business development in the United States
The method
Why is the work done in this order?
We shape the research around your product and your markets. Each step gives the next one what it needs: you approve the chain map before any contact work starts, and the buying calendar is ready before the first approach goes out.
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Map
We start from what is on the shelf, not from a directory, so what we tell a buyer matches their own shelves.
A chain and distributor map
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Rate
Every chain is rated against your actual product lines, with the reasoning written out, so the priority order is yours to approve rather than ours to assume.
Approved priorities
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Name
We research contacts only at the accounts you chose, so we can go deep enough to find who really decides, and when, not just an address that replies.
Named buyers, checked routes
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Time
We time each approach to the category review, when shelf decisions are actually made. Arrive outside it and you wait for the next one.
A timed plan and approved materials
What the research gives you is on The market and buyer map. What a normal month looks like is on Ongoing market management.
Fit
Is your product a fit for this work?
We look for a buyer we can name and goods we can hold.
If that is not the case, we would rather tell you on the first call than after a proposal.
This fits when
- You are a company from outside the EU, already selling at home and abroad, with nobody yet working the market you want.
- You are ready to plan supply with us, so buyers get real answers from the first meeting, even if you have never shipped there.
- Your product sells through retail chains, wholesalers or category distributors, consumer goods above all.
- You hold the rights to certain markets but have no buyers there yet.
- You already keep stock with us and want it to move faster.
- You have English product materials, or you can produce them.
This does not fit when
- You already have distributors working well in your markets. Then we can help most on the logistics side.
- Your product is sold on clinical or technical authority, such as medical devices into hospitals or equipment bought to specification. That sale belongs with your own experts.
- Your buyer wants a supplier with years in that exact category and chain. Our strength is the operation, not category history.
- You want a guaranteed number of meetings, a bought list with no follow-through, or paid advertising.
- You want buyer contacts without planning how the goods will reach them. Our work joins the two.
- You cannot share current product lines, pricing and English marketing materials. The work depends on them.
Who decides
You stay in charge
You stay the principal: you set the prices, you sign the contracts, and the customer relationship is yours. We work alongside you. We are not your commercial agent, we do not represent you, and we do not buy or take title to your goods.
We do not give legal or tax advice, and this is not a regulatory role. If a consumer product needs a Responsible Person in the European Union, that is a separate credential, set out on Compliance.
The operation underneath
Why buyers get answers in the first meeting
A signed listing is a logistics problem the following morning: the goods have to land, be stored, be picked to the chain's order profile, be labelled the way that chain requires, and arrive inside its delivery window. We plan that side with you from the start, through our own operation and quoted separately, rather than handing it to someone else once the commercial work is done.
Stock is held in Europe with our logistics partner, so the operational answers a buyer asks for are answers we already hold. Goods are usually released for free circulation on arrival; higher-value goods that move in smaller volumes can wait under bond, with duty and import VAT due at each release. Orders then move within the EU rather than as fresh imports.
Questions
Questions manufacturers ask us
What do you actually do for us?
We find the chains and distributors that could carry your product, name the buyers inside them, and approach them with you month after month, in wording you approved. In Europe, we also run import, storage and delivery from Portugal. What you get is a steady flow of real conversations, not a guaranteed meeting or sale.
What is included, and what is not?
Working with us over time: the full research, included, then the monthly work, with approaches, follow-up, meetings, a written report each month and a call every two weeks. The research is also available on its own. Not included: paid media, new marketing materials, and third-party fees such as registrations and licences.
Who does the work, and what experience do they bring?
Our team has spent many years developing markets in a wide range of sectors, in the United States, Europe and South America. That is the experience we bring to your case. You keep control through four approval points, a monthly report and a call every two weeks.
How do you charge for this?
We work together on a twelve-month term, paid monthly, with part of what we earn tied to the sales the work brings in. On that basis the research is included. We give indicative figures after a first call, once we know how many markets are in scope.
Which markets and products is this for?
Europe and the United States each have their own page, because the buyers, the calendars and what a supplier must hold differ. It works best for consumer goods sold through chains, wholesalers and category distributors, and less well where the sale rests on clinical or technical authority.
Do you name the actual chains and buyers?
Yes. You get named chains rated against your lines, named distributor candidates with a written reason for each, and the buyers who decide at the accounts you choose, each with a verified contact route.
Business development
Tell us what you make and where you want to sell it. A first call shows whether we fit.
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