How to start a wholesale bakery business in the UK

Supplying cafés, delis, farm shops and restaurants is a different business from selling over a counter. You bake to order, you deliver early, and you get paid on terms. Done well, it gives you steady, predictable volume. This guide covers the legal basics for the UK, how to price for wholesale, finding your first customers and setting up delivery. It's general information, so check the linked official guidance and your local council for your own situation.

1. Register as a food business

If you sell, cook, store, handle, prepare or distribute food, you need to register with your local authority. Gov.uk says you must register at least 28 days before you start trading in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and that this applies to home-based businesses, mobile operations and online sellers as well as shops (gov.uk: register a food business).

In Scotland, Food Standards Scotland says all food businesses must register with the environmental health service at their local authority at least 28 days before opening, and that registration is free (Food Standards Scotland).

If you'll bake at home to start with, register the home kitchen. Your council's environmental health team can tell you what they'll expect to see, and it's worth asking before you invest in equipment.

2. Food safety and hygiene

Gov.uk's food hygiene guidance says you must make and follow a system for managing food safety, and keep it up so you can show inspectors you're doing so (gov.uk: food hygiene for businesses). It's organised around cooking, chilling, cleaning and avoiding cross-contamination.

Two points matter especially for a bakery that delivers:

• Chilled products. Anything with fresh cream, custard or other chilled fillings must be kept at 8°C or below; gov.uk says this is a legal requirement in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and recommended in Scotland, and suggests setting fridges to 5°C or below (gov.uk: chilling and freezing). Plan how that stays true in the van.
• Transport. Food should travel in packaging or containers that protect it and are suitable for food contact, and chilled food must stay at the right temperature during transport (gov.uk: storing and transporting food).

3. Allergens

Bread and cakes contain several of the 14 allergens that food businesses must declare, including cereals containing gluten, eggs, milk, sesame and nuts. The government's allergen guidance says businesses must provide allergen information for both prepacked and non-prepacked food, and that allergens in prepacked food must be emphasised in the ingredients list each time they appear (allergen guidance for food businesses).

Your wholesale customers will need accurate allergen information to give their own customers. Keep a product specification for each item (ingredients and allergens) and send it to every new customer. When a recipe changes, tell them in writing.

4. Hygiene ratings

After an inspection, businesses are rated from 5 (very good) to 0 (urgent improvement required). Display of the rating is a legal requirement in Wales and Northern Ireland and voluntary in England; Scotland runs a separate scheme (food hygiene rating scheme). Many cafés and delis will ask about your rating before they buy from you, so treat your first inspection as a sales asset.

5. Decide what you'll make, and what you won't

Wholesale rewards a short list made consistently well. A focused range means fewer ingredients, simpler bake lists and fewer mistakes at 4am. Start with products that:

• travel well and hold their quality until the customer's lunch service;
• sell every day (loaves, rolls, a few pastries) rather than occasional specials;
• you can make in batches that match realistic order sizes.

6. Price for wholesale

Your wholesale price has to cover ingredients, packaging, labour, energy, overheads and delivery, and leave the customer enough margin to resell. Work it out per item:

Cost line	How to work it out
Ingredients and packaging	Recipe cost divided by items per batch
Labour	Hours per batch × hourly rate ÷ items per batch
Overheads	Monthly rent, energy, insurance ÷ items per month
Delivery	Cost per drop ÷ items per drop

Delivery is the line new bakeries forget. A drop of four loaves costs nearly as much to deliver as a drop of forty. Set a minimum order value or a delivery charge for small orders. Our delivery cost calculator gives you a cost per drop, and how to price delivery rounds covers minimum orders.

7. Find your first customers

Most small wholesale bakeries grow through samples and word of mouth. Pick a tight area first so your early drops are close together, then take samples to cafés, delis and farm shops in person. Ask what they buy now, when they need it, and what goes wrong with their current supplier. Late deliveries and inconsistent quality are common complaints, and they're exactly where a small local baker can win.

Agree terms in writing before the first delivery: prices, delivery days, order cut-off, minimum order and payment terms. Gov.uk says that unless you agree a payment date, a business customer must pay within 30 days of getting your invoice or the goods (gov.uk: payment obligations), so agree something shorter if you need the cash sooner.

8. Orders, cut-offs and bake lists

Most wholesale customers want the same thing on the same days, with occasional changes. Set them up as standing orders and set a clear cut-off for changes, so you know what to bake before you start. Our guides on standing orders and order cut-off times go into detail, and the free standing order sheet is a simple way to start on paper.

9. Delivery

Wholesale bakery delivery is early and time-critical: cafés want bread before they open. Group customers by area, put real time windows first, and load in reverse drop order. The free route planner will order a morning's drops by road time, and running wholesale bakery deliveries covers early-morning runs in more depth.

10. Get paid

Weekly invoices are common in wholesale. Make each invoice clear, send it on the same day each week, and make paying easy. See what to include on a delivery invoice.

RoundSorted is built for this: customers on standing orders or ordering through their own link before your cut-off, a bake list totalled for the day, routes in driving order and weekly invoices customers can pay online. See RoundSorted for wholesale bakeries.