Supplying Harrods: an Unexpected Journey- Part 2

So I told you last week all about how I first started conversations with Harrods about stocking my biscuits. If you missed last week’s post then do go back and read it first. 


So January 2015 came round and no news from Harrods. The Christmas design brief didn’t materialise. I chased a few times and finally got a reply to say that the brief would be circulated in April. 


Spring arrived, it was a busy time for me, I was running my business from home but this was becoming really difficult. I was regularly turning down large orders of 1,000’s of biscuits. I’d done all the right things to ‘play big’ and it was starting to pay off. But I couldn’t meet demand. So I was planning a move into premises, which in itself was a massive undertaking. I was researching equipment suppliers, thinking about recruiting staff all while still doing the day job of baking & shipping biscuits. 

When the Christmas brief landed in my inbox, I was so excited. There were lots of really interesting designs that were right up my street. I worked up the designs, made up samples and sent them in. 
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Food buyer v food technologist

​Harrods loved them. But one of the issues that cropped up was around natural food colouring. Harrods I can  be very strict on only having natural food colouring in its own label products. A lot of the designs they’d put forward had bright christmas themed reds and greens. It was really difficult to achieve these colours with only natural food colours.

I spent about 4 weeks going back and forth between the buyer who was sourcing the biscuits, and the food technologist who knew all the technical stuff to see how we could come up with a solution. 
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​Pitching to the food buyer 

Finally, the reworked samples were ready. To my surprise, the buyer invited me to meet with her to go through the samples in person. On the day, I headed into London with my box of samples, a bit apprehensive and turned up at the store at the allotted time. Only to find that I hadn’t read the address details properly on the email signature and so had turned at the store. The buying team was based as the HQ offices in Hammersmith. 


I rang the buyer to explain and she had a good chuckle and assured me I wasn’t the first person to make that mistake. I hot footed it over to Hammersmith and had the meeting which took place in room full of what looked like a Santa's Grotto filled with cake, biscuit, gingerbread etc samples from the likes of Biscuiteers, Juliet Sears, Fiona Cairns. I felt immediately out of my depth (bet Fiona Cairns didn't end up at the wrong meeting place!), but I held it together and the meeting seemed to go well.

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I was expecting to get some feedback within a week, but again, a good few weeks passed with no news. When I finally managed to reach the buyer she explained that they were still making decisions. 


One of the things she explained was that first they looked at the individual items to make sure they were of the right quality, design etc. Then the next stage would be to plan the range, so how did all the different products from all the different suppliers fit together into one cohesive Christmas range, offer a great variety to the customer, at the right price points.


Another couple of weeks passed by without any news so I rang the buyer again who explained that they’d made the decisions and although they loved my products, they wouldn’t be listing any this year and to try again next year. 


I was gutted. Was it worth trying again? All that effort & energy, maybe it was not meant to be? Why did I - a newbie baker from Luton - think that I could compete with the likes of Biscuiteers and Fiona Cairns? I was ready to give up on my Harrods dream.

​Some key lessons:


➡️  In the larger stockists, there will sometimes be a split between the buying team who know all about trends and the look, feel and price of the products they want to buy in. And the technical team (in this case food technologists) who know all about the technical specifications. The two sides don’t always have the same approach / requirements so it can take some time to navigate the process.

➡️  Sometimes you can put your heart, soul and energy into something and get a knock back. Many times, on more than one occasion. Only you can decide whether to cut your losses and move onto other things or to stick with it. There’s no right or wrong answer.

➡️  You have to trust the timing of your life. That’s not always evident at the time, you can only join up the dots looking back. That Summer I was negotiating a lease, hiring staff, managing builders. I would not have had time to do all the design, audit, specification stuff & get listed.

➡️  Although it didn’t feel like it at the time, none of the effort, energy & learning was wasted. Each try was a step closer to success and I learnt something new and gained invaluable experience.

Tell me, what would you have done? How do you think you would have handled the situation? Let me know in the comments below.

My Harrods story didn't end here.  An even bigger opportunity was about to hit my inbox. Tune in next week for the next instalment.
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If you're a food entrepreneur looking to gain listings with premium retailers like Harrods, Fortnum & Mason and Selfridges, I can help you to hone your pitch, coach you in negotiations and generally be a sounding board to help you to achieve your listing. I can give you much needed insight into the process which will save you time and money, and vastly improve your chances of becoming a supplier. 

Contact me here to arrange a free 20 min call to discuss coaching packages

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