We are experienced with import, export, and cross-trade of various commodities across multiple industries. We offer tailor-made bespoke solutions in sourcing, supply chain, finance, and project management.

We have strategically located partner offices around the globe which allows us to deliver localised insight to our customers. Our trading team have many years’ experience in the trading of soft and hard commodities in various markets and categories. Our experience and deep knowledge of these commodity categories allow us to offer our customers competitive pricing and live market information which can guide their procurement decisions.

Accessing our extensive global best in field manufacturer database we select the best potential partners to work with. We manage full scorecard supplier audits and take ownership of the cost negotiations and all aspects of finding the correct products for the market.

M&L Distributors has a proven track record of launching and growing global brands in the South African retail trade since 1965. We are the proud custodians of a well diversified portfolio of leading global food brands with a focus on bringing the world’s best brands to the South African retail environment. We are one of South Africa’s leading privately owned and independent grocery importers and offer our branded partners a full service brand custodian and stewardship solution.

Our dedicated and passionate specialist branded team have many years experience with the sales, marketing and brand building of food brands in the categories of dry groceries, confectionary, beverages, biscuits, frozen, dairy and pet food.

We offer full end to end control of the supply chain and support at all points of contact. From farm gate to the end destination we manage the process and documentation flow and strive to extract maximum efficiencies from our supply chain know how.

With a strong financially minded team we are able to provide stability to both our customers and manufacturers in terms of payment terms and incoterms required. We are well acquainted with a variety of financial instruments and offer flexible payment solutions in multiple currencies.

We provide tailor made solutions to our stakeholders and manage the risk of all financial requirements throughout the supply chain.

We access our extensive global database to find the most suitable manufacturing partner for the project. This deep understanding of product engineering and the development process allows us to be at the forefront of category innovation and provide category leadership ideas.
 

We have a Quality Assurance team who work with our global manufacturer base to ensure compliance with the highest quality standards. All manufacturers are pre-screened to ensure they meet and exceed the highest standards as demanded by ourselves and our customers.

We work hand in hand with the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS), South African Bureau of Standard (SABS), and Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) to ensure compliance with the regulatory framework for the importation of products into South Africa.
 

We are skilled at the art of Retail Trade Management. We understand the language of the retail trade and offer the following value-added services which skills we have honed over 60 years:

• Buyer negotiations
• Category analysis and segmentation
• Range optimisation
• Merchandising and Sales analysis
• We have a proven track record of building international as well as national and propriety brands in our market 
• We have an unrivalled history of private label / own label development in some of the largest categories at the largest retail chains