A warehouse, a price list and a sailing schedule
We sell to shops, not to the public, and we have done since 2011.
Fourteen years selling to people who resell
Raalhu Trading began in 2011 with one shed and about forty lines, most of them rice and flour, sold to nine shops in two atolls.
Selling wholesale to island shops is a different trade from retail and the difference is the shopkeeper's margin. Our customer does not buy because a display looked good. They buy because the figure on our list leaves them room to sell at the price their island will pay, and because the load arrived on the boat we said it would. Everything about how we work comes back to those two numbers.
So we hold stock rather than order it in, we publish one price list rather than negotiating shop by shop, and we handle the loading ourselves so a shopkeeper on an island four hours away does not need a cousin in Male.
We do not sell to the public and we will not undercut our own customers on their island. A shop that finds out we sold direct to their neighbours has every reason never to order again.
The people on the order desk
Abdulla Rasheed
Ran a shop on his own island for eleven years before opening the warehouse in 2011. Sets the monthly price list himself.
Aishath Nadha
Takes the orders and builds the loads. She is the one who tells you your order missed Tuesday and what that means for the boat.
Hassan Murad
Packs and loads everything that leaves. Heavy on the bottom, plastics on top, bleach in its own crate.
Fathimath Rifga
Opens the monthly accounts and sends the statements on the first working day. Ask her about credit limits before you need one.
Payment, credit and what happens if a load is short
Do I have to pay before the load leaves?
For the first three months, yes, by transfer. After that you can open a thirty day account with a limit.
We start limits low on purpose. A limit larger than a shop's monthly takings is not generosity, it is a problem waiting for a quiet month.
What payment do you take?
Bank transfer, cash at the warehouse, and card for anything under ten thousand rufiyaa.
Account customers are invoiced monthly and settle by transfer. Statements go out on the first working day of the month.
Do you sell to the public?
No. We sell to shops, guesthouses, schools and canteens, and we will not sell direct to households on an island where we supply a shop.
That is not a courtesy. A shopkeeper who finds their wholesaler selling to their own customers has every reason to stop ordering.
Come and walk the warehouse
Industrial Village, Male. Sunday to Thursday, 7:30am to 5pm.