Grove by CNX.earth — For Suppliers
Sell direct. Keep the relationship. Keep the margin.
You grew it, made it, or packed it. Grove connects you directly to the buyers who want what you make — without a consolidated channel taking the relationship, or a cut you never agreed to.
Grove starts with a simple picture: a single supplier, disconnected from the buyers who want what they make. From there, Grove builds a direct connection — supplier to buyer, no distributor in between. AI-assisted tools handle the coordination that usually makes direct sourcing hard: structuring your listings, answering quote requests with your own pricing rules, and keeping negotiation moving under rules you set. Clearer economics replace guesswork. When an order is bigger than one supplier can fill, Grove's virtual co-ops let independent producers combine capacity without merging their businesses. The result: a coordinated network of independent suppliers, trading like giants, without becoming one.
Chapter 1 of 5 — The Problem
Growing it was never the hard part. Selling it direct is.
A consolidated wholesale channel moves volume; it doesn't protect the producer. The distributor sets the price and owns the relationship — you absorb the costs while the cut stays fixed.
- The distributor keeps the relationship. You keep the risk.
- Price is set upstream. Your costs aren't.
- The certifications, the audits, and the paperwork sit with you. The name on the box doesn't.
- Admin becomes a second full-time job — after the one that actually grows or makes the product.
This isn't one bad distributor. It's how a consolidated wholesale channel is built to work — for the volume buyer, not for the producer.
Chapter 2 of 5 — Direct Relationships
Keep the relationship. Remove the friction.
Grove connects you directly to the buyers who want what you make — no distributor's book in between. You quote them, talk to them, and get paid by them directly.
- Your buyers. Not a distributor's book.
- You set the terms. You keep the customer.
- Direct doesn't have to mean disconnected — Grove structures it so it holds at scale.
Chapter 3 of 5 — Intelligent Coordination
Tell Grove what you have. It handles the paperwork.
Upload your price sheet, spec sheet, and certs — however messy. Grove turns them into listings. It is built to quote from your pricing rules; negotiation is designed to stay inside them.
- Messy PDFs and spreadsheets in. Structured, searchable listings out.
- Buyers find you by what you actually grow or make — not by who answers the phone first.
- Your pricing logic quotes for you. You set it; Grove runs it.
- Negotiation stays governed by the rules you set — never a black box.
Chapter 4 of 5 — Transparent Economics
Set your price. See exactly what it becomes.
Grove doesn't erase real costs — logistics, payments, platform access. It makes them visible, so you price against actual economics, not a broadline sheet you never see.
- Clear economics, not a black-box deduction between your invoice and the shelf.
- Varietal, season, growing practice, certification — searchable attributes, not a PDF attachment.
- You decide the terms your product trades on.
Chapter 5 of 5 — Local Supply at Scale
Small producers. Bigger reach.
One farm can't fill a big order alone. Grove's virtual co-ops let you combine capacity with other producers for a specific order — no merger, no lost identity.
- Combine capacity for the order. Keep your business separate.
- A virtual co-op is scoped to the order — no merger, no lost identity.
- If you do want to formalise one, Grove gives you the tools and AI assistance to work through the paperwork. You form the entity; Grove doesn't form it for you.
- Bigger buyers become reachable — together, not merged.
Resolution
Trade like giants. Without becoming one.
Direct supply. Intelligent coordination.
Grove exists so independent suppliers can compete for demand once reserved for consolidated distributors. You stay independent. Sell directly. Protect your margin. Reduce your admin.
For Buyers
The other side of the same network.
Grove works because buyers want direct supply too. Restaurants and foodservice operators use it to source faster, compare clearly, and buy from suppliers they can reach directly.
- Search by what you need, not by who you already know.
- Compare price, terms, certifications, and availability — side by side.
- Buy direct. Buy with confidence.
Questions suppliers ask before joining Grove
Grove is an AI-powered supply-chain marketplace connecting independent suppliers directly to hospitality and foodservice buyers — without routing the relationship through a broadline distributor.
No. Grove is built to add a direct channel alongside the buyer relationships you already have — not to require you to drop them. If a broadline channel isn't bringing you the direct-sale demand you want, Grove is where that demand can reach you.
You upload them however they exist today — PDF, photo, spreadsheet, whatever's on hand. Grove structures that information into listings buyers can search by product, certification, region, and availability, so buyers find you without you rebuilding a catalog from scratch.
No — that is an architectural rule, not a setting you switch on. You set your pricing rules, and Grove's AI-assisted negotiation support is designed to keep quote requests moving inside them: the financial calculations and the final quote stay governed by the rules you set rather than decided independently, agents work within defined authority boundaries, and consequential actions wait for your approval. The negotiation flow is being built now — during the Arizona and Southwest pilot, a person walks you through it.
Grove's virtual supplier co-ops let you combine capacity with other independent producers for a specific order — without merging your business with anyone else's or taking on new overhead. You stay a separate business the whole time. If you decide you want a formal co-op rather than an order-scoped one, Grove gives you the tools and AI assistance to work through the formalities — but you form the entity, not Grove. The Connected Spaces knowledge base has more.
Grove's model combines platform access, a transaction fee on completed orders, and usage-based AI compute costs — the specifics depend on your product category and order volume. A consultation is the fastest way to get real numbers for your business.
Grove's first supplier categories are produce, specialty foods, dairy-adjacent products, farm-direct goods, and specialty ingredients, with Arizona and the Southwest as the initial region. If that's not quite you yet, a consultation is still the fastest way to find out where Grove is headed next.
Grove is built around structured listings and quotes you control — you decide what to list, what to quote, and to whom. The specifics of what a given buyer sees vary by workflow; ask about your catalog and buyer scenario directly in a consultation.
No — that's the opposite of what Grove is for. Grove coordinates independent suppliers; it doesn't consolidate you into one entity. Virtual co-ops combine capacity for a specific order only, and you remain a separate, independent business the whole time.
Thinking about a co-op? Grove gives you the tools and AI assistance to work through the formalities — you form the entity, not Grove. Read the co-op formation guide.