Vegetables and fruits store, b2b and b2c

[Bramxq]

Hi guys!

Small introduction (English might suck a bit)
So my dad is in the vegetables and fruit business for about 40 years now, he had golden times but it starts to get a lot worse now.I think he lacks innovating and doesnt know anything about websites etc. He is still using the same ways as 40 years ago, but then it worked really well. They got really fresh vegetables and fruits and salads they make themselves which is all very fresh. He works from 5am to 8pm and it hurts me to see it go downhill. These days supermarkets got price contracts with farmers so he is only able to get leftovers at a high price. He says there's not any new b2b prospects coming into this market so it does not have any future and he already put hes warehouse and stores up for sale.

He runs 2 b2c stores in 2 small cities and they both accumulate a good revenue (although it really depends on the weather, sun is a lot of customers, rain is a bad day)

So I have been thinking on how I can help him, maybe even make it alive again. I can probably fill in with marketing techniques and stuff and combine that with he's incredible knowledge and experience in this niche. The main problem is to just find new b2b prospects because playing against big supermarkets is unfair. I think the best goal would to sell huge amounts at once and maybe upgrade the stores orfresh them up with a formula.

I would love to get some inspiration from this forum, as there is a lot of knowledge here and very skilled men and women

Thanks in advance

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

So my dad is in the vegetables and fruit business for about 40 years now

So he's a farmer?

 

[Bramxq]

So he's a farmer?

No, he buys at farmers to. Its a green grocery warehouse that distribute it own stores. But open for b2b selling.

Sorry for my lack off explanation.

1/2 part of hes business is wholesale; but it decreased in customers hard last years. ( hes customers quitted/died and there isnt new people coming into this market)

1/2 of hes business is retail shops, he got 2 different retail shops in cities where he also sells hes groceries ( fruit,veggies, juices, salads etc).

Now back in the days (its an old family business) they had about 10 retail shops and a lot b2b customers coming into him. But it's all been decreasing slowly and they're stuck for about 3 years now. The shops on itself run pretty good but there overall revenue and margins are just to low.

2 problems I hear when I listen to him;
- For the wholesale part of the business; There is no new upcoming companies that he can supply to. Supermarket dominate the prices and got contracts with farmers, there is no more auction sales like back in the days, so prices are settled ( no room for bargains etc )
-For the retail side; to low margins, the work requires a lot of emplooyes and is scared to raise price. He doesnt want to customers to leave/disappoint.

I hope I provided some relevant information.