The Sewing Place
The Emporia => Sewing Professionally => Topic started by: Gemma on November 05, 2017, 20:20:57 PM
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Hi all,
Does anyone have any experience ordering from fabric wholesalers? I have a business idea but i think to make it profitable i need to be getting the materials wholesale, and i haven't idea how to go about that or what to expect!
Thanks,
Gemma
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wholesalers require that you set up an account, have minimum orders and they price without VAT. I haven't bought fabric wholesale but several places I went for fabric would do pirices for whole rolls. You will need a business card or letterhead. Nowadays it might be more rigorous. Why not search for wholesale fabric and go through tne process of setting up an account? You don't have to submit it but it will show you what they ask for.
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You can buy bolts of fabric or as many metres as you need without necessarily going down the wholesale route.
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Sometimes you'll get better deals with retailers if you haggle than you will with wholesalers.
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Sounds like I'll have to give it go and see what happens. Not sure if my requirement of 3 or 4 rolls will hit the minimum order requirement.
I know i can get a discount on a whole roll a lot of places, but for fabric shops to be making a profit they must be charging about twice what they buy it for.
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I think that mark-up to the full recommended retail price is about 50%. Don't forget that wholesale prices are usually quoted without the VAT.
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Some wholesalers will require you to set up an account with them, plus they often insist on a Business Bank account too. I started a small rosette making business (now defunct as I can't compete with mass produced ones), but it was easy to set up a Business Bank account - the only problem being that there were no fee for the first year, but they were horrendous in the following years, eating into my small profit!