Abstract

This chapter seeks to identify and clarify successful business developments by specialist and niche businesses in the UK fresh produce market, related to the management of supplier–buyer relationships, and then relate the findings to the study of power-based supply chain relationships and networks. The focus is on the issues and challenges that face specialist suppliers when they work to improve their relationships with buyers. Serving a pivotal function in the link between primary producers and dominant retailers, channel intermediary organizations source from suppliers and then deal directly with supermarket retailers. This chapter will detail an enquiry, based on personal, in-depth interviews with the commercial directors of typical fresh produce intermediary businesses, into the best routes to market for small, specialist, and niche suppliers, as well as their best methods for managing channel and network relationships. Specifically:
1. Can satellite specialist suppliers manage channel power issues and business relationships despite their distance from the market?
2. What can specialist and niche suppliers offer, compared with large or generic suppliers?
3. How might small specialist suppliers benefit from learning about the mechanisms of business relationships?
The following discussion thus features implications for relevant academic theory, as well as practice pertaining to small business development, in relation to the management of supplier–buyer relationships.