The full Essential catalogue is now available on the Open Food Network (OFN), updated six times per year in line with product and price updates from Essential.
Tamar Valley Food Hubs (TVFH) are now offering their shoppers the option to place a bulk order of Essential produce. Claire Morgan at TVFH says “A number of our regular weekly shoppers are now starting to place orders on our separate Essential order cycle. This order cycle gives them access to the complete range of Essential products. Most of these items are in bulk – like 6 x one litre of soya milk or 12 x tins of beans. Our shoppers can order any item from the Essential list with no minimum order volume. We add a small enterprise fee percentage to cover our admin and the contribution we make to OFN.
Our Essential order cycles run on a fortnightly basis and is ordered along with stock for our online shop so that we always meet the Essential minimum order value of £350.
How it works:
- Wholesale prices are available to anyone with an existing Essential account.
- Essential require a minimum order of £200 – £350 depending on your location.
Ideal for:
Buying Groups/Food Co-ops (Stroud Valleys Wholefood Co-op have trialled this model successfully. You can contact them for advice here)
Suggested use:
- Open a separate order cycle stocking Essential products only
- Close the order cycle when you surpass £250 of orders
- Send the OFN ‘customer totals’ report to Essential as your order
- Prepare final invoices and packing sheets using OFN reports Export OFN generated invoices and reports to accounting software.
Purchasing stock for resale to domestic customers through your OFN shopfront.
Suggested use:
- Use the OFN ‘inventory’ function to set your own stock level
- Place a bulk order of all your Essential products in one go.
If you would like to try out an Essential order cycle, please contact us and we will set up the necessary enterprise permission. Once the products are added to your order cycle your shoppers will be able to search the entire Essential product list by:
- Product name or brand
- Product categories (toiletries, drinks, etc)
- Essential product codes (SKU)
- New products (search ‘new’)
- Promotions (search ‘on offer’)
- Properties (search ‘organic’, ‘fairtrade’, ‘vegan’)
You can view the Essential list on our demo site here (on this demo a 2.4% OFN contribution fee is added to Essential prices).
If you would like to explore any of these options please contact nick@openfoodnetwork.org.uk