BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

The market and buyer map

EFC maps the retail chains and distributors, in Europe and the US, that could carry your product, rates each one against your product lines, and names the buyer or category manager who decides. This is the research we do first. It comes market by market, with a verified contact route for every name, and it is included when you work with us over time.

A map without names is a report, and a name without a map is a cold contact.

A manufacturer's products mapped to four kinds of buyer, retail chains, specialist shops, distributors and online stores, narrowing to a meeting with one buyer at the right point in the calendar.

The gap

Why does a bought distributor list rarely lead anywhere?

A database sells you rows. Rows do not tell you whether that distributor already carries a brand that competes with yours, whether that chain reviews your category in February or in September, or which of the four people with "category" in their title actually signs.

The result is a list that looks like progress and rarely converts into a conversation. Approaches go out to a general address, land outside the category review window, and often go unanswered. It is easy to conclude that Europe is hard. More often the sequence was the problem, and the sequence is something we can fix with you.

A retail chain does not decide when you are ready. It decides in its category review window, and an approach that arrives outside it waits for the next window.

The map

Which chains and distributors will you actually see?

Market by market, in the markets we choose together. We shape the research to your product before we start, so treat what follows as a guide rather than a fixed list.

Chains that could carry your category.

Supermarket, drugstore, pharmacy and specialist chains per market, each with a fit rating against your specific product lines, high, medium, or first to check, and the reasoning behind each rating written out.

What the three fit ratings mean.

High

The chain carries your category today, the shelf has a place your product could take, and the buyer is identifiable. These go to contact work first

Medium

The category fits but something is unresolved: price positioning against what is already on the shelf, pack format, or which of several buyers owns the line. The reasoning says which

First to check

Worth a look before it is rated either way, usually because the category read needs confirming in that market. Rated properly once checked, not left in the middle

The rating is against your actual product lines, not against your company. A chain rated medium for one line can be rated high for another, and the map says so per line.
What is already on that shelf.

Which competing brands hold the space in the chains you have prioritised, at what price positioning, and whether your product complements them or has to displace one.
Own-brand lines.

Which of those chains run a private label in your category and at what scale, and whether producing for it is a route in beside selling under your own brand.
Distributor candidates per market.

Companies already active in adjacent categories, each with a written rationale and named decision-makers rather than a switchboard number. What happens to those candidates after the map is delivered is set out on Ongoing market management.
The decision calendar.

The category review windows where shelf decisions are actually taken, and the trade fairs in your category with their dates, so approaches are timed to the window instead of to our availability.

The names

From a chain to the buyer who decides

Once you approve the chain map, the priority accounts go to contact work. In a large chain the category is usually split across more than one person, so the buyer for your product line is rarely the buyer whose name appears first in a search. Knowing which one to write to is the part that takes time, and it is the part we take on.

Every contact comes to you with a verified contact route: the role, the account, and a route of contact we have checked before handing it over. Where a route cannot be verified, we say so rather than pass it on as if it were.

What we check before a name reaches your list.

Four checks, run on every distributor candidate before it is rated.

Competing lines already carried: Which brands in your category they already hold, because a candidate whose range makes yours a complement is a different conversation from one where yours has to displace something
Accounts actually supplied: Which accounts they supply in practice rather than list on a website. Where a candidate cannot evidence access to the accounts they claim, we ask how the account is actually served before it is prioritised
Market coverage: Whether they cover the markets you need or only the one they are strongest in, because coverage claimed across a region often means depth in a single country
Internal ownership: Who inside the company would own your line, because a candidate with nobody to own it will take the meeting and go quiet afterwards

Every candidate reaches you with the four checks answered in writing, because which of them matters most is a decision for you rather than for us.

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.

An unverified contact is worse than no contact, because it wastes an approach and returns nothing. Every name we hand you carries a verified contact route.

From your side

What do we need from you before this starts?

The map is built against what a buyer will actually see, so it is built from your real materials, not from your website. This is the one part we cannot do without you.

Current product lines with price positioning, and the priority lines inside each.
Target retail price range per product line, so the shelf analysis compares against real competitors and not against an assumed price.
Your trade price list and terms, the order minimum, and the lead time you offer European buyers today.
Packing data per line: carton dimensions, shipped weight, units per carton and pallet configuration. We need it for the stock and delivery numbers, and it is rarely published.
Any existing distributor agreements, or a description of them where nothing is written, and any territory you already hold or are negotiating.
Product evidence you hold: certificates, durability, service life or warranty terms.
English marketing assets: product catalogue, product pages with packaging images, high resolution images, and a presentation aimed at a chain buyer.
Any account already in conversation, so nothing we approach collides with a conversation you already have running. How we handle that
Market preferences, or your agreement that we propose the priority order ourselves.
One point of contact on your side who can approve at the points below.

If any of these does not exist yet, we flag it early so there is time to prepare it before we approach buyers. Missing materials are a common reason this work stalls, which is why we look for them at the start rather than halfway through.

Your control

Where do you approve, and what does approval change?

There are four approval points, and the work moves on only when you approve. At each one, we give you what you need to decide. This is the research that opens our business development work.

Before work starts. How we work, and the scope, agreed in writing: which markets, which channels.
After the first phase. The first results, which decide where the contact work goes next, since we research contacts only at the accounts you prioritise.
Before approach material is drafted. The market and account priority order.
Before any approach. The approach material before use, as it carries your name.

What happens after the map is on Ongoing market management.

EFC operating base: Portugal, inside the European Union (source: EFC LDA, NIPC 519154606, Amadora, Portugal)

Questions

Questions manufacturers ask before starting

How do I find a distributor in Europe?

Start from the shelf, not from the directory. Identify which chains and channels carry your category in each target market, see which distributors already supply those accounts in adjacent categories, and approach the ones whose existing range makes yours a complement rather than a competitor. That sequence is what we do with you, market by market.

How do I qualify a European distributor?

Check four things: which competing brands they already carry, which accounts they actually supply rather than claim, whether they cover the markets you need or only the one they are strongest in, and who inside the company would own your line. Where a candidate cannot evidence access to the accounts they claim, that is a question to settle before prioritising them. We run those checks for you before a name reaches your list.

How do I get my product into European supermarkets?

Through the category review window, with a named category manager, a price that survives against what is on the shelf, and an answer to how the goods physically arrive. The stock question is part of the commercial conversation, not a detail settled afterwards, and it is the part we can answer for you.

Do you name actual chains and buyers?

Named chains, named distributor candidates, and named buyers or category managers at the accounts you prioritise, each with a verified contact route. Categories without names are a market study, and that is not what this is.

What if we already have contacts in some of these chains?

Tell us at kick-off. Existing relationships are excluded from the approach so we never collide with a conversation you already have running, and an existing contact inside a group can be a route into a neighbouring market where the same group operates.

Can we start with the research alone?

Yes. The research is also available on its own, and working the contacts afterwards is agreed separately. When we work together over time, the research is included, with no separate charge. The terms are set out on the engagement page linked below.