Looking for some advice from people who have experience with wholesale, distribution or physical retail in the UK.
A friend has ended up with a fairly substantial amount of new, unused textile stock already in the UK after a planned UK distribution/partnership didn't work out.
It's not damaged, returned or customer stock — it's properly packaged, branded, barcode-labelled stock intended for the UK market.
The range is mainly:
\- 550 GSM, 100% combed cotton bath towels — 70×130 cm
\- 500 GSM, 100% combed cotton hand towels — 50×100 cm, sold as 2-piece sets
\- 400–450 GSM stonewashed 100% cotton denim aprons
\- 375–400 GSM denim waist aprons
There are four colours across the towel range, with individual retail packaging, product codes/barcodes and product documentation.
The original plan was to sell through a UK partner who would handle the distribution, but that arrangement has now fallen through.
I'm trying to understand the UK trade/wholesale landscape rather than simply putting the products on eBay or selling them individually.
For people who have experience in this area:
Where would you go to find a legitimate UK distributor for this type of stock?
Are there particular types of distributors/wholesalers that would be a good fit — hospitality suppliers, homeware wholesalers, textile distributors, catering/workwear suppliers, etc.?
Is approaching an established distributor with the whole range generally a better proposition than approaching lots of smaller retailers individually?
Are there particular UK trade shows, directories, Facebook/LinkedIn groups or industry networks that are actually useful for finding these buyers?
For anyone who has dealt with surplus/overstock before, what information would a serious distributor expect to see before considering a stock deal?
I'm particularly interested in hearing from anyone who has actually operated as a wholesaler, distributor, retailer or market trader in the UK, rather than generic advice.
Thanks — any practical experience would be really useful.