Chain listings
Getting your range listed in the major chains
Chains open their categories on a fixed calendar. We prepare the submission, take the buyer meeting, agree the terms and buy the opening order ourselves — so your range reaches the shelf without your brand paying for any of it.
The review calendar sets the clock
Chains do not add lines whenever they feel like it. Each category is reviewed on a set date, the planogram is redrawn, and what is agreed in that meeting holds the shelf until the next review. So we work backwards from those dates. We know which categories open when, because we are in front of those buyers every week, and that tells us months ahead whether your range goes into the coming review or the one after it, and what has to be finished before then.
Building the category case
A buyer is not buying your product. They are buying a change to their category, and the submission has to answer it in those terms: which shelf the line sits on, which existing line it stands beside, what it brings that the range does not already have, what it is likely to replace. We write that case with you, using what we see across the chains week to week — which sizes move, which price points sit empty, which formats shoppers reach for first. Samples, pack shots and costings go in with it.
In the buyer meeting
Our commercial team takes the meeting. We are already an approved supplier with a trading agreement in place, so the conversation starts at the range rather than at supplier onboarding. The buyer asks what buyers always ask: can you supply it every week, what happens when it goes on promotion, who fixes it when a store runs out. We answer that from our own warehouse and our own delivery rounds. You come in where the product itself needs explaining — formulation, factory, capacity, what is coming next.
Chain listings
Three numbers get agreed. What the chain pays us, what the product sits at on shelf, and what it drops to on promotion. We build those back from your factory cost and the margin the category expects, and we tell you plainly when a cost price will not clear the hurdle. The promotional calendar is settled in the same conversation: how many weeks, at what depth, in which trading periods. You see the terms before we commit to them, and you are invoiced for none of it. We earn on the stock we buy.
Barcodes, master data and the opening order
Then the unglamorous part, which is where most listings stall. Every line needs a barcode at unit and case level, a case configuration, true weights and dimensions, pallet patterns, ingredient and allergen text, shelf-life rules and photography at the resolution the retailer's systems will accept. We set all of it up in each chain's supplier portal and keep it correct as packs change. Once the data clears, the chain raises its first order on GDH and we buy the opening stock from you outright. Your side of it is one delivery into our warehouse.
In practice.
Already an approved supplier
Trading agreements, supplier codes and portal access are in place before your range is ever discussed, so the only open question in the meeting is the product.
No invoice, ever
We do not charge for submission work, buyer meetings or master data setup. GDH earns from the margin on the stock it buys from you.
We buy the opening order
The first order is placed on GDH, not on you. We take the stock position and carry the risk; you produce to the forecast we give you.
FAQ
Questions brands ask us.
That is set by the chain's review calendar, not by us. Each category reopens on a fixed date, and a range either makes that review or waits for the next one. Once we have agreed which categories you belong in, we can tell you the dates we are aiming at and exactly what has to be finished — samples, costings, barcodes, images, data — before each one closes.
Nothing. There is no listing fee, no submission fee, no charge for the data and portal work, and no charge for the meetings. GDH buys your stock and sells it on into the chains, and our income is the margin between those two prices. If a range does not get listed, you have paid nothing for the attempt.
It happens, and the reason is usually worth having. Buyers decline because the category has no space, the price architecture does not work, or the pack is wrong for their shelf. We bring that back to you in plain terms, change what can be changed, and then either resubmit at the next review or go at the same category through another chain, independent retailers or pharmacy, where the gap may be real.
Next door.
Send us your range.
We will tell you honestly where it fits and how fast we can start.