If you’re a specialty retailer, gift shop, café, hotel, or event planner adding Swedish or European candy to your offer, the supplier you pick matters more than the candy itself. Here’s the buyer’s checklist we wish more candy importers actually answered upfront.
1. Where is the inventory warehoused?
The single biggest difference between a "Swedish candy site" and a real wholesale supplier is whether they hold US inventory or drop-ship from Europe per order. Drop-ship from Europe means 2–4 week lead times, customs delays, and frequent stockouts on the high-velocity items. US-warehoused inventory means next-week reorders and predictable case fills. Always ask: "Where is the candy when I place an order?"
2. Are products FDA-compliant for the US market?
Swedish, Dutch, and German candy isn’t labelled for the US by default. To be sold legally in US retail, products need FDA-compliant labeling: ingredients in English, allergen disclosures (FALCPA), nutrition facts in the US Nutrition Facts panel format, and net weight in both metric and US customary. Suppliers that import for retail vs. for "personal use" handle this differently. Ask for a sample label before you commit.
3. How do they ship to Canada?
If you serve Canadian customers, the right answer is DDP (Delivered Duty Paid). With DDP shipping, the supplier handles customs clearance, duties, and CFIA-side compliance, and your invoice covers everything. The wrong answer is "ship and your customer pays the broker fees" — that’s how you generate angry support tickets.
4. What are the case sizes, MOQs, and price tiers?
A serious wholesale supplier publishes (or readily shares):
- Case size and pieces per case for each SKU
- Minimum order quantity (MOQ) — both per SKU and per order
- Tiered price-per-gram or per-case at 1, 5, 25+ case quantities
- Pallet pricing for high-volume buyers
If you can’t get a price list within a business day of asking, that supplier won’t scale with you.
5. Do they offer Net-30 terms?
For a multi-location retailer or an established gift shop, Net-30 (or Net-15) terms become important fast — pre-paying every reorder limits how much candy you can stock without tying up cash. Most reputable wholesalers offer Net terms after a credit-checked application or one or two prepaid orders. If they refuse Net entirely, you’re probably looking at a gray-market reseller, not an importer.
6. Can they private-label?
For corporate gifting programs and event-planner buyers, custom packaging is often the difference between winning and losing a contract. Ask whether the supplier can private-label individual items, sleeve packs, or full gift boxes — and what the MOQ is for custom runs.
7. What’s their stock-out policy?
Imported candy will eventually go out of stock. The question is what the supplier does about it. Ask:
- Do they notify ahead of a known stock-out window?
- Will they substitute a similar SKU with your approval?
- What’s the typical "back in stock" lead time after a stock-out?
8. Industry references and category fit
Specialty candy is a small enough world that good suppliers can name three retailers in your category who already buy from them. Ask. If they can’t, you’ll be the experiment.
The short version
A real wholesale Swedish candy supplier is one that holds US inventory, ships FDA-compliant labeled product, handles DDP into Canada, publishes its case-and-MOQ structure, offers Net-30 to qualified accounts, and answers "where’s the inventory?" with a US zip code rather than "we’ll get it from Europe."
TheSweetsTruck is built for that buyer. We warehouse Swedish and European candy in California, ship FDA-compliant for the US and DDP into Canada, and have Net-30 available for qualified accounts at launch in May 2026. Tell us about your business and we’ll send the catalog and tier pricing.