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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Supp.li (E-marketplace for HORECA industry buyers, sellers and transporters)

Teaser

The concentration of bargaining power in the hands of distributors and retailers can result in UTPs, undermining the livelihood of European small and medium farmers and producers. UTPs increase the commercial risk of the party which is the victim of the UTP in question and may...

Summary

The concentration of bargaining power in the hands of distributors and retailers can result in UTPs, undermining the livelihood of European small and medium farmers and producers. UTPs increase the commercial risk of the party which is the victim of the UTP in question and may eventually give rise to inefficient production decisions or discourage operators from engaging in commercial relationships. Small farmers or cooperatives, as well as small food processors, often deal with large buyers which represent their only access to the market and can exert strong pressure on prices and margins. They may even be forced to sell at a loss.
Supp.li is Europe`s Online B2B food marketplace that connects European food Producers with food Buyers directly, automating and securing the entire buying and selling process for both parties. Supp.li can be considered the European alternative (of European ownership(!)) of U.S. and Chinese e-commerce giants, but on the special field of food products (on which field Europe is still ahead in quality and supply and is considered historically better than its global competitors). Supp.li can be considered the first MOOD = Massive Open Online Distributor, where Buyers, Sellers and Transporters can connect and trade with each other directly.

Work performed

Overall, Phase 1 provided time and resources to understand the technical and business viability of Supp.li. In particular, following aspects were assessed and provided valuable insights:
• The current state of the food and HORECA industry was researched, with its implications in socio-economic context. Large retail players and ecommerce companies dominate the distribution channel between small producers, distributors with Buyers on the HORACA sector.
• Via Supp.li, Sellers from the European F&B industry (€1,048 trillion business opportunity) can sell their product to Buyers in the HORECA industry.
• Furthermore, it was decided that there is an immense potential to use the platform to connect European producers with Chinese Buyers, therefore Supp.li started to focus its efforts to enter onto the Chinese market. There is no such solution today, while Chine is the most important market in the world.
• Supp.li platform connects Sellers (food producers, SMEs, distributors) with Buyers from the HORECA sector. Its Value Proposition offers a unique and perfect match to solve the pain of Sellers and Buyers.
• During Phase 1, hundreds of contacts and discussions took place with diverse stakeholders from these markets, who helped the Team to understand the desired MVP that will be commercialized and confirmed the market viability of the future service.
• Supp.li platform has been since the Phase 1 application launched for market test in Hungary and Poland. During Phase 1, Supp.li Kft. recycled and used these first results to prepare the plan of further development and upscale of the platform, to achieve all Functional Requirements and enter new markets. The Team defined Use cases, Concept of Operations, Architecture and detailed key functional scenarios, such as the alcohol and excise duty handling.
• The up-to-date comparison with available solutions confirmed that Supp.li is the first of its art, therefore delivers European innovation with a global impact.
• During Phase 1, Supp.li leveraged the coaching of the SME Instrument to shape and update the go-to-market strategy in Europe and China, as well as exposed them to European initiatives, like the EIT Food.
• At the end of Phase 1, Supp.li Kft. was able to define the product development plan for the platform, which fits perfectly into the SME Instrument Phase 2 scheme. The cost of the platform to develop and commercialize was estimated as €3.5M. Supp.li also researched the applicable regulations to consider (GDPR, EU tax, etc). Project risk analysis was performed.
During Phase 1, dozens of discussions took place with potential users and re-sellers based on which InnoSec was able to better define the objectives and the next steps. In summary, Phase 1 convinced the management of InnoSec to further pursue the idea and to prepare next steps towards the product development, to be conducted with the help of Phase 2 of the Horizon 2020 grant scheme.

Final results

Lack of transparency and UTPs are constraining SMEs in Europe to lower their barriers and to grow. The competitiveness of the supply chain is very low, offering the huge business potential for the Supp.li platform to disrupt it. Overall, from the socio-economic impact analysis, it become clear, what significant and positive benefits the platform can provide to Europe. In particular, Supp.li will support European SMEs.
The successful development, testing and validation of Supp.li will fully validate the technology, and Supp.li Kft. is confident that Buyers, Sellers and Transporters will be interested in the commercialization.

Website & more info

More info: http://supp.li/.