Many thanks to Penny Brooks for suggesting a link to a fantastic piece on small businesses on the BBC web site…

The article looks at how three small businesses have managed to grow their sales by achieving product listings with major supermarket groups - the “holy grail” for many consumer product businesses.

The key requirements seem to be:

(1) a good product (absolutely essential)
(2) persistence - not being put off by rejection
(3) being able to contact the right buyer - supermarkets delegate product selections to category buyers
(4) a good price (for the supermarket) but which generates an acceptable profit margin
(5) a clearly defined target customer
(6) reliable logistics (operations) that mean the supermarkets can be stocked
(7) lots of luck