For suppliers, CENFOOD offers above all easy access and distribution to the largest retail chains in Germany. An effortful listing process per retailer is no longer necessary thanks to CENFOOD’s centralized listing. In addition, we can take care of the central storage and distribution of your goods on request and optimize sales volumes for existing listings with the help of mixed palletizing. With the help of our online distribution platform, you always have full control over your stock movements, sales and invoicing. An AI calculates your minimum stock level and tells you when you should produce and restock again. Furthermore, suppliers no longer have to worry about processing individual orders, deliveries and invoicing.

• Access to the retail branches of REWE & EDEKA
• Access to the wholesale and CC stores of Metro, Globus
• Access to various food delivery services
• Uncomplicated drop shipment to each individual store thanks to digital fulfillment service
• Cost reduction through optimisation of route logistics
• Through bundled shipping incl. Invoicing, the food retail sector has significantly lower minimum order quantities per item.
• Retailers can invoice everything via CENFOOD → thus faster listings due to significantly lower administrative effort
• Use Cenfood as a clearing house vis-à-vis the food retailer
• Cenfood actively supports sales
• Storage in our logistics centers for optimized withdrawal for bundled goods ordering
• Access to our Online Distribution Management System
• Use of our product master data management system with master data export and API function
• Sale via our online marketplace

We were originally created purely as a service for start-ups. In the meantime, however, we have specialised in the general distribution of all suppliers. This has created a large network of buyers, flow-of-goods managers, merchandisers and category managers. Furthermore, we work closely with the respective start-up programmes of the retail chains. With the help of our online distribution platform, we also provide young brands with fast access to decision-makers.

For start-ups that are still at the very beginning and do not yet have a marketability certificate, we offer an advisory and support service through our partners. This person will support you with questions regarding subsidies, marketing and branding as well as product declaration and marketability.

We work with a clear and open calculation. This means that as a supplier you determine the prices for the buyer. For the providing and using of our Online Distribution System, the Product Information Management System (PIM) as well as the taking over of storage, logistics and delivery, we charge a one-time OnBoarding fee as well as fixed storage fees, and also a service fee per processed sale via our platform, depending on the service and booked service level.

Of course, suppliers can take advantage of certain service aspects of CENFOOD that do not require storage in our central warehouse. One of the main reasons for traders to order via our platform is the bundled delivery of goods as well as the central billing of multiple orders via one central supplier. This makes storage in our central warehouse necessary. Only then will you as a supplier also benefit from all the advantages of our solution and optimise your sales.

Many retailers are forced to adapt their purchasing processes to meet increasing demands. However, the associated administrative effort and staff shortages can be significantly minimized by our central solution. Increasing minimum order quantities and transaction costs due to the growing number of drop-ship and buy-in items have forced many retailers to either order less or eliminate suppliers from their assortment altogether, even though they have had good sales. Therefore, more and more retailers rely on our solution and would like to have the regulation of drop-shipments and bought-in articles completely handled by CENFOOD. Through our service, all orders, billing and deliveries are handled in unison, leaving the retailer with only one point of contact, CENFOOD, and the ability to order, deliver and bill multiple suppliers in a bundled manner.

All items on our platform are presented on the marketplace depending on the booked service package. The presentation is supported by product recommendations, trend lists and regular new product introductions to buyers and decision-makers. We are also happy to support you in planning special set-ups and promotions and put you in touch with the right contacts in the trade.

Nevertheless, our services should always be understood as additional support. Basic sales work, brand building and end consumer marketing are among the most important tasks of any supplier. The fast listing process as well as the distribution via CENFOOD, is a decisive argument for the retailer and thus an important sales advantage.

Of course, this depends on many factors. However, if your item has been properly created and checked in our system and interest has been generated by a CENFOOD affiliated retailer, your product may already be on a retailer’s shelf for the first time within 10 days. The effortful dealer listing and inspection process, especially for new products and suppliers, which conventionally took up to 6 months, is enormously accelerated and greatly simplified by our service.

In order to use our CENFOOD service, you will first and foremost need a supplier GLN. Furthermore, we can only activate products with a valid EAN/GTIN. (You can find more info on https://www.gs1-germany.de/). For almost all chain stores and online supermarkets, a valid marketability certificate is mandatory. Important certificates, e.g. for BIO certification and the bottler’s certificate, must also be filed in our certificate manager. We will be happy to support you in preparing the necessary documents.

For foreign suppliers, CENFOOD assumes, under certain conditions, the role of importer and thus the initial distributor, provided that no German importer and supplier has yet been engaged for this purpose.