I used to work for one of the aforementioned suppliers wanting huge first orders. I also used to work in big business and understand that things we don't often consider also cost money: Loading you onto their B2B (costs suppliers time and their hosting service provider charges them per user), every invoice, credit note, courier slip and picked order costs money so I can get why they have min. 1st orders BUT, the guys I worked for were ridiculous in wanting I think up to 8k for a first order and I was told that one of the major groupset brands dictate the value of the first order, which is way higher than 8k plus the items you will buy......
To suppliers it makes sense to deal with as few customers as possible, while never allowing one customer to become so large they can dictate to the supplier.
I was chatting to someone about this the other day and agree with an earlier post about rather opening a restaurant during COVID - Unless you have a unique location, stay well away. Even if you get exclusivity on a great brand, the cycling landscape in SA is so massively overtraded in respect of outlets/turnover or profit R its scary, Consider what cash you have to outlay on bikes to ensure you have what people want/need on top of all the components to satisfy the matrix of component standards.............PLUS, when you exclude CL, Trek & Spez, there are not too many brands left and in my opinion not enough to deliver the kind of ROI to make it worthwhile.
