Partner with Grassfed.ie

The shortest version

You keep your shop, your existing customers, your team, your brand. You add a national digital storefront and recurring-revenue subscription customers — without building your own ecommerce or running ads. We take 10–13% of order value (lower in year one for founding partners). You cut, pack, and dispatch from your own premises, the way you already do for local orders.

What you get

• A national digital storefront on grassfed.ie. Your own butcher page with your story, your photos, your full product range — visible to customers across Ireland.
• Subscription-customer flow. The "Grassfed Box" subscription rotates customers through partner butchers — guaranteed monthly orders for each rotation slot.
• Direct-to-butcher orders. Customers can also choose a specific butcher and reorder from you long-term. The customer relationship becomes yours.
• Branded insulated packaging we provide — co-branded (your shop name + grassfed.ie). Frozen ice packs, 24-hour cold-chain rated.
• Customer payments handled. Stripe + Revolut + Apple Pay through grassfed.ie checkout. You receive your share weekly to your business account.
• Editorial coverage — we write a "meet the butcher" feature for every founding partner. Photo essay, family story, what makes your beef different. Drives organic acquisition for both of us.
• Marketing support — paid acquisition runs from grassfed.ie's central budget. You don't pay for ads.
• No exclusivity lock-in. You stay free to sell through your own channels, walk-in customers, your existing online shop if you have one. We're additive, not exclusive.

What you provide

• Your stock. Grass-fed Irish beef and lamb you're already cutting. SBLAS certification preferred (and probably already in place — most established Irish butchers have it). PGI eligibility is the strongest brand signal we lean on.
• Cutting + packing from your premises, the same workflow you use for local orders. We're not asking you to change your operation.
• Dispatch to courier. DPD Cool Chain or An Post Express Cool, picked up from your shop on your existing dispatch days.
• Quality. The grassfed.ie name only goes on butchers we trust to do good work. Ongoing quality review is part of the partnership.

Commission

• Founding-partner tier (year 1): 10% commission on order value.
• Standard tier (year 2+): 13% commission.
• Featured-placement rotation (homepage, top-of-county, "butcher of the month"): no extra fee — built into the standard partnership.
• Promoted listings (paid placement above editorial): optional, separately priced; not required for the partnership.

Compare: typical multi-vendor marketplaces charge 15–25%. Etsy is 6.5% + ad fees + listing fees. Amazon is 15% + FBA. We're priced to make the partnership worth your time, not to extract every margin point.

Payment timing

Customer pays grassfed.ie at checkout. We hold the funds until your dispatch is confirmed, then release your share to your business bank account on the next weekly cycle. Standard ecommerce timing. We use Stripe Connect for the split — battle-tested, escrow-clean, no float lag.

The case for joining as a founding partner

1. Lower commission for year one. 10% vs 13% — this is real money over a year of subscription orders.
2. Featured-placement rotation — front and centre on the site at launch, when traffic is highest per-customer.
3. Editorial profile — full "meet the butcher" feature published. Most butchers never get this kind of profile published professionally.
4. Shape the platform — founding partners help define cut sizes, packaging standards, dispatch days, customer-service tone. You get input that later partners don't.

What we won't do

• Take exclusivity. You sell through whatever channels make sense for you.
• Hold customer relationships hostage. If a customer reorders directly from your shop, that's a win for you, not a loss for us.
• Compete with you on supply. We don't have a farm or a butchery. We're a marketplace.
• Demand changes to your existing operation. Cut and pack the way you already do.

FAQ

What if my SBLAS certification isn't current?

We can help you renew it as part of partner onboarding. PGI labelling requires SBLAS so it's worth doing — but for the launch tier we accept butchers in the renewal process as long as they're on track.

How does shipping work?

Couriers pick up from your premises on your existing dispatch days (typically Tuesday + Thursday). We coordinate the booking with the courier; you hand over the box. Customer cost is built into the price.

What about returns / customer complaints?

First-line customer service runs through grassfed.ie. If a customer reports a quality issue we escalate to you privately and replace at our cost from your next dispatch — quality fee shared. Patterns of complaints lead to a private partner-review conversation; no surprises.

Can I sell more than just beef?

Yes — most partner butchers carry lamb (also PGI-eligible), pork, chicken, charcuterie, sausages, value-add items. The platform handles all categories. Our brand lead is grass-fed beef but the basket can carry the rest.

How quickly can we go live?

The site is already live and indexed. Once we agree partnership terms and onboard your product range — typically 2–3 weeks of photography, copy, and pricing setup — you replace the "listing open" placeholder on your county page with a full profile. Founding partners go live as soon as onboarding is done, not at some future launch date.

What if I don't have professional product photography?

We arrange a one-day shoot at your shop for founding partners. Photography is on us; you keep all images for your own use (including your own website / social).

Get in touch

We're happy to talk through the details over a coffee or a phone call. No high-pressure pitch, no rush. The partnership is too long-term to be rushed at the start.