Distributor Programme — Territory, Terms and How Exclusivity Actually Works

Sample

You evaluate the physical product against what your market expects. No commitment, and it costs a fortnight rather than a season.

First order, non-exclusive

A working quantity into your channel. This is the stage that produces the information both sides need — how it actually moves, at what price, through which retailers.

Review

Sell-through, pricing reality and the channel you reached. An honest conversation here is worth more than an optimistic forecast at stage one.

Territory agreement

Exclusivity against a volume commitment, for a defined territory and term. Now grounded in something real.

Own brand

Most partners move to private label at this point — your name on the jar, your positioning, your customer relationship.

Format expansion

Fill sizes or packaging formats tuned to your market, once volume justifies the tooling.

What moves the discussion forward

• An annual volume commitment you are willing to put in writing
• A named channel — the retailers, platforms or clinics you actually sell through
• Existing distribution in adjacent categories
• A registration plan for your market, with a timeline
• A first order already placed and moved

What does not

• A request for exclusivity before a sample has been seen
• A large forecast with no channel behind it
• Exclusivity over a region you cannot cover
• A plan that depends on marketing the product with drug claims

The last one is not a formality. A distributor who plans to sell a cosmetic as a cure is a liability in that market for everyone downstream of them, including us.

Order and production

Trade

Do you offer exclusive territory?

Yes, to committed partners. Exclusivity is negotiated against volume and against a plan, not granted on request at the start of a relationship. The usual path is a non-exclusive first order, a review of how it moved, and an exclusive agreement with a volume commitment once both sides have something to base it on.

What size of distributor do you work with?

Anything from an online seller taking their first pallet to a national importer. What matters more than size is whether you have a route to the end customer — a distributor with a channel is more use to us than a larger one without.

Who registers the product in my market?

You do, as the responsible person placing a cosmetic on the market there. We supply the ingredient breakdown, manufacturing detail and photography your notification needs. If you are distributing under your own brand this is the same process as any private label launch.

Can I sell under my own brand as a distributor?

Yes, and most distributors past their first order do. The private label programme puts your name on the product; the distributor agreement covers the territory and the commercial terms. They fit together.

What marketing support is provided?

Product photography, the ingredient and manufacturing documentation, and the instruction leaflet content in a form you can translate and adapt. We do not run advertising in your market or supply localised campaign assets — that is your side of the arrangement and you know your channel far better than we do.

What are the payment and shipping terms?

Quoted per order with the incoterm agreed in the quotation. Terms for a first order and terms for an established partner are not the same, and the second are better.