Fruit and veg wholesale deliveries: a guide for small suppliers

Supplying fruit and veg to restaurants, cafés, pubs and schools is a tight-margin, early-start business. Your day starts at the market before your customers are awake, your prices move every week, and half your orders arrive by text after service. This guide covers the parts of the job that decide whether a small wholesale round makes money: order timing, buying, substitutions, pricing and getting paid.

The order-to-delivery timeline

Everything in fruit and veg wholesale runs backwards from the market. If you buy at a wholesale market in the early hours, you need tomorrow's orders before you go. That sets your cut-off.

When	What happens
Evening	Order cut-off. Totals for tomorrow worked out.
Early hours	Buy at the market, or from your growers, against the totals.
Early morning	Pick and pack per customer. Load in reverse drop order.
Morning	Deliver, ideally before kitchens start prep.
Afternoon	Credits for anything short or rejected. Next day's orders arriving.

The evening cut-off is the one most suppliers struggle to enforce, because chefs finish service late. A cut-off at 9pm or 10pm with an easy way for kitchens to change their own order usually works better than a 6pm cut-off that everyone ignores.

Standing orders are your base load

Most kitchens order the same core items daily: potatoes, onions, carrots, lemons, salad, herbs. Put these on standing orders by weekday, so the kitchen only needs to tell you about differences. This makes your buying more predictable and reduces the late-night messages to genuine changes. See managing standing orders for the full method.

Buying to totals

The single biggest money leak for a small veg supplier is buying from memory. You either run short and lose a sale, or overbuy perishables that won't keep until tomorrow's order. Before you go to the market, have a total per product for tomorrow, from standing orders plus that day's changes.

Add a sensible margin for items that commonly get added on the day (lemons, herbs, salad), and for anything with high wastage when picked. Then track it. If you consistently over-buy an item, cut the margin.

Substitutions

Sometimes the market doesn't have what you need, or the quality isn't right. Substitutions are part of the job, but they cause disputes when the kitchen isn't told. A few rules:

• Agree a policy with each customer. Some chefs want a call first. Others are happy with "nearest equivalent, noted on the delivery note".
• Always record it. Note the substitute on the drop so the invoice matches what was delivered, not what was ordered.
• Price it fairly. If the substitute costs you more, absorb it unless you've agreed otherwise. Chefs remember suppliers who used substitutions to sneak prices up.

Prices that change

Market prices move with weather, season and supply. You have a few options for passing that on:

• Weekly price list. Send customers a list each week. Fair, but it's work for you and many chefs won't read it.
• Fixed prices on core lines, market price on the rest. Agree stable prices on the staples, and let seasonal items float. This is a common compromise.
• Per-customer prices. Larger accounts often negotiate their own prices. Keep these recorded against the customer, not in your head.

Whatever you do, the invoice must use the price that applied on the delivery date. Changing a product price shouldn't rewrite last week's invoices.

Selling by weight

Much of what you sell is priced by the kilo, the sack or the box. Make sure your units are clear on order forms and invoices ("10kg bag", "5kg box", "each"), and that the quantity on the invoice matches what was weighed out, not what was ordered. If you sell goods by weight, the scales you use must be approved and marked as fit for trade use, not just any kitchen scale. Business Companion, the government-backed trading standards guidance site, explains what's required (Business Companion: weighing equipment for legal use), and your local trading standards service can advise on your situation.

Delivering to kitchens

Restaurant deliveries have their own quirks: back doors down alleys, kitchen porters who sign for things, and windows before prep starts. Help your driver with clear access notes on each customer, plan the route around the earliest windows (our route planning guide explains how), and take a photo of each drop. A photo of the delivery inside the back door is the quickest way to settle a "we never got the herbs" call.

When something is rejected at the door (soft tomatoes, the wrong item), record it as a short drop there and then. The credit note should be automatic, not something you remember on Friday.

Credit control

Restaurants are notorious for paying late, and small suppliers are often the last to be paid. Protect yourself:

• Agree payment terms in writing before the first delivery. Weekly invoices with 7 or 14 day terms keep balances small.
• Set a credit limit in your head for each account, and stop deliveries when it's passed. A restaurant that owes you six weeks is a risk, not a customer.
• Offer Direct Debit or card payment links. The easier it is to pay, the faster you're paid.
• Know your rights. Under UK late payment law, you can charge statutory interest and fixed recovery costs on late business payments. Our getting paid on time guide sets out the rules with links to gov.uk.

Pricing your delivery

Many small veg suppliers bury the cost of delivery in their product prices, then take on tiny orders that cost more to deliver than they earn. Work out your real cost per drop with our delivery cost calculator, then set a minimum order value or a small delivery charge below it. See how to price delivery rounds.

Tools

Large wholesalers use full distribution systems with stock control and accounting links. For a one or two van operation, the essentials are simpler: standing orders, a way for kitchens to change orders before the cut-off, buying totals, a route, and invoices with each customer's prices. That's what RoundSorted does. See RoundSorted for fruit and veg wholesalers.