Food and coffee suppliers: winning new restaurant accounts
Auspector ·
Between September 27 and October 27, 2026, 6,101 restaurant, 1,863 café, 1,003 bar and pub, 2,154 bakery and 1,530 grocery records entered our newly opened businesses section in the United States, and 2,727 in the same five sectors in the United Kingdom. For a food wholesaler, coffee roaster, drinks distributor or packaging supplier, the list answers two questions: which of these businesses buys your product, and how far along each one is.
Which new business buys what?
A new restaurant, café, bar, bakery or grocery store sets up most of its supply in the weeks around opening. The menu or the range decides the products, the storage decides the drop size, and the opening hours decide when a delivery can be taken. Which supplier gets in depends first on the type of business:
| New business | Food wholesaler | Coffee roaster | Drinks distributor | Packaging supplier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants | The weekly core: dry goods, oils, meat, dairy, frozen | Espresso and decaf for after-meal coffee | Soft drinks and water; beer and wine | Takeaway and delivery containers, bags, napkins |
| Cafés | Milk, pastries, baking and sandwich ingredients | The core account: espresso, decaf, filter, machine service | Plant-based drinks, juices, bottled water, syrups | Cups and lids in their sizes, sleeves, bags |
| Bars and pubs | Bar snacks; kitchen lines if food is served | A small coffee offer | The core account: beer, spirits, wine, mixers, draught | Napkins, straws, cups for outdoor areas |
| Bakeries and pastry shops | Flour, butter, sugar, eggs and fillings in bulk | Coffee for the counter or a bakery café | Chilled drinks for takeaway | Cake boxes, bags, boards, labels |
| Supermarkets and grocery stores | Shelf range, chilled and frozen lines on a fixed route | Retail bags of coffee for the shelf | Retail packs of soft drinks and water | Carrier and produce bags, labels |
Alcohol comes with its own licensing and distribution rules in each market; this guide does not cover them. The buyer’s side — the card terminal, kitchen equipment, insurance and everything else a new restaurant buys — is in how to find new restaurants and cafés. Coffee in detail, city by city, is in new coffee shops and cafés; drinks distributors will find the pub figures in new bars and pubs.
How many open each month?
| Sector | US: new, 30 days | US: new per 1,000 records | UK: new, 30 days | UK: new per 1,000 records |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants | 6,101 | 8.8 | 997 | 10.1 |
| Bakeries and pastry shops | 2,154 | 22.8 | 369 | 19.3 |
| Cafés | 1,863 | 16.6 | 672 | 13.7 |
| Supermarkets and grocery stores | 1,530 | 8.6 | 385 | 6.0 |
| Bars and pubs | 1,003 | 13.8 | 304 | 7.5 |
| All sectors | 337,207 | 13.9 | 59,187 | 11.5 |
In the United States, the most new records went to restaurants (6,101), bakeries and pastry shops (2,154) and cafés (1,863); in the United Kingdom, to restaurants (997), cafés (672) and supermarkets and grocery stores (385). Measured against the records already there, bakeries and pastry shops arrive fastest in the US (22.8 new per 1,000 records; all sectors 13.9) and bakeries and pastry shops in the UK (19.3; all sectors 11.5). That is a rate of arrival in our database, not of openings, but it shows which type of customer is growing fastest against its own base. Wholesalers who supply shops as well as kitchens will find the grocery figures in new grocery stores and supermarkets.
Which cities?
| City | Restaurants | Cafés | Bars and pubs | Bakeries | Grocery |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York, US | 160 | 35 | 16 | 20 | 53 |
| Los Angeles, US | 74 | 34 | 9 | 11 | 8 |
| Houston, US | 67 | 11 | 12 | 7 | 6 |
| Chicago, US | 46 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 12 |
| London, UK | 159 | 53 | 24 | 29 | 30 |
| Manchester, UK | 23 | 8 | 10 | <5 | 7 |
| Glasgow, UK | 13 | <5 | <5 | <5 | 6 |
| Birmingham, UK | 12 | 6 | 7 | <5 | 7 |
Of the four cities in the US, New York received the most new restaurant records (160), ahead of Los Angeles (74). Of the four cities in the UK, London received the most new restaurant records (159), ahead of Manchester (23). For a supplier the city view is a delivery question: a new account two streets from an existing drop costs less to serve than one at the end of a new route, so start with the list inside your current delivery zone. Full city tables per sector are on the data pages, for example restaurants in the United States and cafés in the United Kingdom.
Opening the account: from the first visit to the second order
A new record is dated by the day it reached us, not by the opening day. On a month’s list some businesses are still fitting out, some opened a few weeks ago and some have traded for longer. The steps below follow an account from the first conversation; where you join depends on that stage.
- Find out the stage. Fitting out, opening soon or already open? Before opening, the menu and the supplier list are still being written. After opening, you are either replacing someone or adding a line that is missing.
- Ask for the menu and the volumes. Covers or customers per day, opening days, storage — walk-in, freezer, dry store — and the hours when someone can sign for a delivery. These decide the drop size and the delivery days you can offer.
- Bring product, not a catalogue. Samples for two or three dishes on their menu, a tasting at the counter for coffee, the drinks range they would list, cups and boxes in their sizes.
- Open the account. Ask for what your credit policy needs: legal and trading name, tax or company number, delivery address and receiving hours, one contact for orders and one for invoices, and how they will pay. Decide in advance what you offer a business with no trading history — payment on delivery, card or direct debit for the first orders, credit terms once there is a record — so the rep can answer on the spot.
- Time the first order. Opening-day stock has to arrive before the doors open. Agree the delivery days, the minimum order and the order cut-off now, not after the first missed delivery.
- Book the first-month review. After a few weeks the volumes are real: lines that do not sell, portions that changed, a second supplier tried for one category. A short review in week three or four, with a re-order rhythm to propose, is where the second order is won — and the second order is what makes it an account.
If you finance part of the fit-out against a supply agreement — machines on loan against a coffee contract, a bar fitted out against a drinks contract — that conversation belongs before the fit-out ends, and the terms are a matter for your own legal team.
Building the list
- Categories by product: a roaster picks cafés, bakeries and restaurants that serve coffee; a drinks distributor bars, pubs and restaurants; a packaging supplier cafés, bakeries and takeaway restaurants; a broadline wholesaler restaurants by cuisine. Each record keeps its own category and categories are chosen one by one, so “pizza restaurant” or “tea house” can be a list of its own.
- Area = delivery zone: city and district for the territory you deliver to; coordinates put the day’s new records next to your existing drops.
- Time: arrived in the last 30 days, this week’s arrivals first.
- Channel: phone number on record for a telesales team; address and, where published, opening hours for a rep, so the visit lands between lunch and dinner service rather than in it.
- Chains and groups: one business can have several records, and each branch of a chain is its own record. The same name on several new records may mean central buying; ask who orders.
- Watch: save the search and new matches arrive by email every day.
Searching and counting are free on every plan, so you can see how many new accounts your delivery zone had this month before you spend a credit (pricing). A credit is spent the first time you open a record’s details, and an export counts as opening; one credit opens one newly opened business or five established ones, and a record you have opened never costs again. Exports are CSV or XLSX with a stable ID per record. A record carries name, category, address, city, district, phone, web address, coordinates and, where available, opening hours; there is no email column and no named-person column.
The first contact
Food and drink are bought on taste and on delivery reliability, so the first contact that gives an owner something concrete is a visit with product. The phone is for qualifying — is the menu fixed, who orders, when is a good time — and for confirming the visit. In the United States, 73.7% of all new records in the period carry a phone number; in the United Kingdom, 74.9%. For the call itself, see our cold call script for new businesses.
Rules on unsolicited calls and messages differ by country and channel, and the obligation lies with the sender; check them with your own counsel before a campaign (FAQ).
What to measure
Keep the record ID from the export in your CRM and log, per record: visited, sample left, account opened, first order, second order. After a few months the same log shows which categories and districts turn into accounts for you, and how long the step from first visit to second order takes — your own figure, per product line, instead of a rule of thumb.