Sunday, September 30, 2007

Why We Are Doing a Blog?

  • We want to connect with our customers in a meaningful way.
  • Our customers are busy and may have downtime in early mornings or evenings and this is a way we can keep the lines of communication open 24x7.
  • Our website is very information dense, but it can be challenging to find information on new items or trends and this is a way to bring important information to your attention.
  • The blog will serve as a fantastic reference to look back on.
  • Our suppliers want to provide information to our customers and this is an effective way to do that. For example, you will see a blog about how to properly taste chocolate and the blog is a fantastic way to get that information out.
  • The blog will be updated every week – we hope to have frequent updates and will respond to comments of a general nature as quickly as possible. Specific questions about your account or order should be addressed either over email or by phone. Click HERE for the Redstone Foods main web page and you can get our email address and phone numbers.


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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Who is Redstone Foods?

Redstone Foods is a family owned specialty food distributor, focusing primarily on Confections and Snack items. We define “specialty food” as food not normally seen in traditional grocery and convenience stores. We are looking for upscale, unique products to offer to our customers. While we do carry products with wide brand recognition, such as Lindt, Ghiradelli, and M&M, we focus on those companies who have a higher end focus and less mass market focus. Even within large companies, we tend to focus on specialty items. For example, we sell more Licorice Altoids (http://www.redstonefoods.com/pictures/76451.jpg) than Original Altoids (http://www.redstonefoods.com/pictures/6991.jpg).

Our customers vary in size from very small gift basket makers and Mom & Pop stores to divisions of multi-billion dollar companies. They have retail stores, gift stores, specialty grocery stores, are florists, hospital gift shops, gift basket makers, and party planners – just to name a few. Our relationships are very long term. We have had many customers for over 25 years and our average sales person has been with us almost 20 years and our average customer service person almost 10. We do business almost exclusively on credit terms (meaning we ship product and customers pay us later) – we do not take credit cards and don’t require a pre-payment once credit is established.