The wholesale process - how to get going!
New business
1. Get in touch with our wholesale enquiry form and/or book to have a call or meeting with us to ascertain your needs. We can also calculate your estimated monthly budget / cash flow projection with you to frame things most suitably.
2. Ensure that your business will align with our brand standards and minimum supply terms.
3. Fill in our trade account form.
4. Sign our wholesale service level agreement. This is not a contract, just an acknowledgement of expectations for you and ourselves to ensure a mutually respectful, trusting partnership!
5. Establish your coffee choices by flavour, price and seasonality.
6. Complete our Barista One course online, with our coaching to assist.
7. If preferred, come to us for training at the Roastery before you get your own equipment!
8. Our dispatch team will then set up your account for online ordering - you'll receive an invite link to set a password for your portal!
9. Deliver and install any grinders, machines and place your first order on the portal.
10. Book your on-site training with us after your authorised installation of machinery etc.
11.Practice the principles taught in training and get yourselves launched on site.
12. Keep an eye on stock levels and always have a one week of buffer stock in place. Order by a Tuesday every week as per the SLA document recommendation!
13. Complete any further training on Barista Hustle or in-person with us.
14. Keep the feedback loop open for ongoing consultancy and post-opening support.
15. Book site visits and staff training with us as per ongoing needs.
16. Run an in-house tasting event and maybe even develop your own coffee event schedule with us.
Existing Business
1. Get in touch and have a call or meeting with us to ascertain your needs from us.
2. Ensure that your business will meet our minimum coffee supply terms.
3. Fill in our trade account form - our dispatch team will then set up your account for online ordering - you'll receive an invite link to set a password for your portal!
4. Sign our wholesale service level agreement. This is not a contract, just an acknowledgement of expectations for you and ourselves to ensure a mutually respectful, trusting partnership!
5. Communicate your desired coffee choices by flavour, price and seasonality
6. Complete our Barista One course online if needed, with our coaching to assist
7. If preferred, come to us or one of our clients' sites for a coffee and any training before you get going!
8. Order and enjoy our specialty grade, ecologically sound and socially ethical coffee.
La Marzocco Machines
We are passionate about quality and only recommend equipment and machines that deliver exceptional results. We are official partners of La Marzocco coffee machines and have worked to develop a flourishing relationship with this leading espresso machine retailer.
Commercial Grinders
As an established and accredited Coffee Academy, we are fortunate enough to have access to a whole range of equipment that we rigorously test for its capability to produce consistent, quality results.
Wholesale FAQ
Why do you have minimum standards?
To ensure that we're aligned with our partners on our sense of quality and ethics, and to minimise the chances of coffee quality falling at the final hurdles, wherever it will be served or sold to end users and coffee drinkers. Read here
Why can't I just order right away online?
We need to make sure we have all of your account info squared up right away, and need to ensure our coffee is looked after when it leaves us. We do this by ensuring adherence to our service level agreement (SLA) and our minimum supply terms!
How do I order from week to week?
Using our online trade portal, for efficiency and maximum speed of service from our end, and to avoid forgetting, misplacing or altogether missing important info!
How much will my coffee cost me per cup?
This will depend on the dose you decide to use in your espresso machine, but generally our coffee can allow you to work with a trade cost per cup starting at £0.25 / 25p.
How do I know I can make my business viable with North Star?
We work with customers to build a financially viable model with our coffee rather than keeping the relationship purely transactional. We know what it takes to make a viable business at varying scales, and work with our wholesale partners on a wide array of coffee business models. We have run our own coffee shops since 2017 too, of course, and can provide our own personal experience of building ours from the ground up!
When should I order?
Generally, we advise taking stock of your coffee after your busiest typical days of the week and ordering immediately after your stock take. We recommend ordering each Monday or Tuesday to get entered into the roasting schedule most effectively.
How often should I order?
Weekly orders make the most sense for a fresh product such as specialty grade coffee, however for sustainable business practices and more financially viable models we recommend ordering once every two weeks to reduce emissions and delivery costs, without sacrificing freshness.
How do we know it's working well?
Ask us! We can work with you to ensure your profitability, performance and ordering patterns are suggesting a successful operation in house. We can also be honest and open about what you could easily get ahead with, and how to improve your own systems to maximise your opportunities.
Do you deliver nationally
Yes, with DPD for trade orders and Royal Mail for any small parcels.
Can I sell the coffee online or by retail instore?
Yes, and we can recommend pricing and ordering habits for you to be competitive in those environments, without sacrificing quality or freshness.
Which bag sizes should I buy
For trade use in food service, we suggest 3kg sizes for filling espresso grinders. We suggest 1kg or 250g sizes for any seasonal filter coffee service, and for retail sales. Remember that 250g coffee makes around 13-15 cups at 16-18g used per cup, assuming zero wastage. 1kg will then make 55-62 cups and 3kg can make 166-187 cups, so choose based on how fast you think you'll get to those numbers!
Which coffees should I choose?
We have a Base range and an Explore range, both suited to different preferences and coffee drinkers. Follow the links to those ranges above and feel your way through the flavours! Where coffee will be consumed regularly with milks of any type, we generally advise choosing a
balanced profile from our Base range, but it's truly up to you and your local
market to decide what you want to showcase and experiment with!
How many grinders do I need?
We recommend always having at least two grinders, one for espresso service and another for the mixed usage needs that we often see in coffee environments - decaf service, filter coffee brewing and to grind bags
for retail sales.
What about equipment?
We have minimum standards for equipment to ensure that our coffee is presented consistently at high quality in service environments. To see these listed out concisely, follow this link (insert link to supply terms document) and for more info on our commercially suitable equipment click our grinder and machine guides.
Should I sell retail bags of coffee?
f you're in a coffee shop, or a high-quality food service environment with coffee as a focal point, we'd say yes. It's possibly one of the most under-utilised, under-rated ways of boosting a regular appreciation for specialty grade, ethical coffee and its nuanced journey from seed to cup. It's a great way to build a local feedback loop on seasonal harvests of coffee from us, and to allow your own clients an opportunity to share their experience
of amazing coffee at their home. Equally, having retail coffee gives you an
all-important position