Buyer found · Restaurants

A new Chula Vista restaurant that wanted a seafood supplier

Catalina Offshore Products was connected with a restaurant that had just opened and was asking for sea bass, shrimp and octopus prices.

Paid $3,300

Catalina Offshore Products

Seafood supplier in National City, California.

Introduced to

Ceviche Heaven

Newly opened sushi and seafood restaurant in Chula Vista.

Worked with a fellow operator.

$3,300

Introduction fee, paid by the supplier

Cost to the restaurant

Products it asked prices for

What they needed

Catalina Offshore Products moves fresh fish, shrimp, crab and lobster out of its National City warehouse and had room for new restaurant accounts in Q4. Ceviche Heaven had just opened in Chula Vista, buys a high volume of fresh seafood, and wanted a supplier’s catalog and prices for sea bass, shrimp and octopus.

What we brought

A restaurant that had already asked for prices, a few miles from the supplier’s warehouse. The introduction carried the three products, the volume, the Chula Vista location and the restaurant’s own words.

How it happened

We wrote to newly opened restaurants and to food suppliers in California at the same time. Within hours a restaurant that had just opened in Chula Vista replied asking for a catalog and prices on sea bass, shrimp and octopus.

Catalina Offshore Products replied that it had room for new accounts and asked where the restaurant was. It offered 3% of the first 90 days of orders for the name. We declined: the fee is flat, whatever the restaurant ends up buying.

The supplier received a brief with an excerpt of the restaurant’s real reply, its name withheld, its ZIP code so the drivers could check the route, and the $3,300 fee. The restaurant received a free preview of the supplier’s published prices for the three products.

When the fee was paid, both sides went on one email thread with the context each needed. No calls. The restaurant paid nothing.

What it was worth

A new account that orders seafood every week. $3,300, paid by the supplier. The restaurant paid nothing.

Why it worked

The restaurant had already asked for prices before we wrote to the supplier. A new restaurant must buy food from someone, and suppliers spend heavily trying to be that someone, so the supplier was happy to pay for a restaurant that was asking.

All markets →More food and drink case studies →

Let’s talk business.Tell us about your business and what you want to achieve. We reply with whether we see a relevant opportunity.