reselling goods

owl_lover

Hi,
I hope I'm posting in the right place and don't confuse anyone!

My friend and I are thinking about starting a business which will involve bulk buying goods, repackaging them and personalising them and then reselling.

I wanted to know whether we have to credit the companies from whom we bought the goods? If we don't, could we?

For instance, say I was reselling chocolate, if it was supermarket cheap chocolate, would I have to specify this? If not, and I was using gre*n and bl*cks chocolate could I specify this when selling?

Thanks for your help

cavework

The grey 'gray' market of quite a few large companies do this all the time.
check it out

CKhalvashi

Legally I don't think you have to, as long as the chocolate is fit for consumption and you're observing all food hygiene laws.

See here.

zaax

That's what most companies do change the packages and double the price

InsideInsurance

Are you simply talking about replacing the wrapper or are you doing anything to the goods?

As long as the goods arent branded on the product itself, like KitKat have their logo in the chocolate and there is no copyright to their design etc (which is unlikely) or accusations of passing off then you should be ok but as you are the ones doing the labeling then you are the one that would become liable should the information be wrong.

Depending on the volumes involved you may be better off going further up the supply chain and formally buying the goods to white label them rather than buying consumer products and relabeling them.

owl_lover

Thanks for your help, we would be buying in bulk so think we would be ok.
I'm a bit confused about whether we would have to register as a food business... if you are melting chocolate etc I guess you do?
But what about if you are just repackaging it?
Thanks

InsideInsurance

Speak to your local council, they are surprisingly helpful

Aquamania

Not sure if serious, but anyway here goes ...

I don't think you can just repackage an existing item and pass it off as your own ... at least not without the manufacturer's permission.

e.g. if you look at Aldi/Lidl products, it says speciallly made/produced for Aldi/Lidl ... although almost certainly from the same suppliers that supply many other major supermarkets, and even possibly big brand names.

It may be possible if you change the product in some way.
e.g. you could probably buy Walls bangers, cook 'em up, stick 'em in a bread roll (possibly with some onions) and then sell them as owl_lovers hotdogs.

But in your instance, you seem to have already ruled out the any suggestion of melting down the chocolate.

Many supermarkets operate restrictions on bulk buying too
Why do you want to pay the supermarket mark-up anyway? If you think you can sell in bulk, cut out the middleman and go direct to their supplier.

Anyway, I am not a lawyer ... and you can't rely on anyone posting here for legal advice. So if you are really intent on this venture, I suggest you go and see one and get proper legal advice you can rely on. (It'll cost you a pretty penny, but will be well worth it)

owl_lover

Sorry, maybe I wasn't, clear- I'm planning on buying goods online in bulk from suppliers not from supermarkets.
The council were really helpful- thanks for the advice

Aquamania

Sorry, I misunderstood you
(You mentioned the example of using supermarket own brand chocolate in the OP)

With regards the advice you sought from the council, yes they usually are very helpful, but they can only advise on their own areas of responsibilty/enforcement.

So questions about planning, hygiene, registration etc will be answered, but they can't be relied upon for answers (if given)about the legality of passing off other manufacturers goods as your own.

Brands (you also mentioned the example of a quality chocolate manufacturer in your OP) are very protective of their own products. They will be on you like a ton of bricks if you are found to be passing off their products under your own (brand) name. I would expect the big supermarket lawyers to do likewise if their own brand products were being passed off as something else too.

Someone mentioned "grey" market products earlier in this thread. That's not really applicable to what you are proposing.
The grey market is essentially selling products through unauthorised channels, rather than passing them off as your own.

At least one big supermarkets got involved in this a few years back selling Levi Jeans. Note the jeans were not repackaged or rebranded, but were being sold as genuine Levi products (which they presumably were). However Levi had not authorised the supermarket to sell their products (and were probably also annoyed that they were selling them much cheaper than the authorised outlets in this country)
The law is complicated in this area, and I suspect the various lawyers of those involved thought they had won the lottery, but let's just say that the supermarkets haven't sold Levi jeans for a long while now
(or got themselves involved in any other similar grey market sales involving major brands)

I would still urge you to seek your own independent legal advice if you are planning to pass off others products as your own.
(or even if you simply plan to get yourself involved in grey market selling)

owl_lover

Thanks for the advice.
To be honest, it was just an idea we had and the more I look into the technicalities of it, the more I think it's not worth it- it would never be a hugely successful business so paying for legal advice probably isn't worth our while.
I think I'll just keep it as a hobby & for Christmas pressies :-).