Supplier of consumables to commercial marine industry and food processors.
The Buying Network was founded in March of 1999 by the President, Clay Peil and the Vice President, Brady Coleman. The idea of the business came about with the company's principles working for very large marine companies in the procurement field. They wondered how a smaller vessel operator could keep cost down and compete with the behemoths’ that they managed. The benefits of having a purchasing staff without having the overhead cost would certainly help level the playing field. However, the cost of this added department is not in the budget of these smaller companies. The Buying Network was born, a free purchasing service for the small to mid-size company that cannot afford the staff.
"A dollar saved is a dollar of net profit: Savings of $1,000 is equivalent to a sales staff generating $10,000"
As The Buying Network grew, many of the customers it served now were becoming larger companies. With the increased volume of business, the buying power increased, reducing the cost of goods. As cost dropped, pricing to our customers became less and attracted even larger companies.
The snowball effect of savings has attracted large companies with a purchasing staff to seek pricing on a variety of goods through The Buying Network. The supply of goods to both the small business, through our procurement service operation or commercial sale, to the large operator using us as an outsourced purchasing function during a peak in business, or commercial sale to a purchasing staff, has shaped our company of today.
The Buying Network provides products and service for vessels in the Pacific Rim / Alaska, to Washington State, down the west coast into California, and shipping international into Micronesia, Norway and Russia. Contracts for supply on the east coast from Maine to Florida have included the world's largest capacity at sea freezing ship to single vessel fishing operations. The US Gulf of Mexico area has had many supply deliveries to our customers that have operated in those waters all the way down to Brazil to support a fishing operation operating in the South Atlantic Ocean.
Our limited online sales presence for selected products, which are used in many industries, like absorbents, disposable gloves and rain gear have shown us that our prices are competitive and that many smaller companies can benefit from our wholesale pricing structure.
Going forward, The Buying Network will satisfy the needs of our current customers beyond expectations, expand its online presence, capture more of the vessel procurement market, and provide excellent pricing for small businesses.
The Buying Network has a simple philosophy: We save money for our customers.
We are a purchasing cooperative, service supplier, and distributor to the commercial marine sector including fishing, seafood processing, deep sea, tug & barge and cruise ship businesses.
Some of the products we sell to our customers in the fishing and seafood industry are used in other industries or for personal use. You will find some of these items for sale on our website. If you don't see what you are looking for, please contact us. We most likely have it, as we sell around 10,000 different items to our current customers.
You have the same challenges in business if you have a small company, a fishing vessel or work for a large maritime company. You need to save money on the goods your purchase. We work with companies that have thousands of crew members on ships to small food processors that only have a handful of employees.
The Buying Network works very close with our customers in the food processing side of the seafood industry. From the survey of equipment, providing sanitation training for personnel, and the supply of all the necessary products to clean and sanitize their processing facilities, The Buying Network is YOUR PARTNER – not just another supplier.
Many of our customers are involved in the production of food products for human consumption. Given this, we feel that training of personnel in the proper use of our products is very important. Our contention is that if our customers employ our products correctly, they will produce a quality product and they will greatly reduce the likelihood of contamination – contamination that we hear so much about these days on the news.
The line of products that we sell for use in the food processing industry is extensive and as such cannot be listed in its entirety here on our website. You will find however, items such as latex gloves, rainwear, aprons, beard covers, hair nets and packaging tape that can be purchased online.
The Buying Network also supplies a myriad of products to the general marine sector of our business. Products such as absorbents: chemical absorbents and oil absorbents (available for purchase on our website); chemicals (Drew Marine and Wesmar company); filters; refrigerants and everything (A to Z) in between. We supply these products and more – every day, to customers that operate very large ships, fleets of vessels and operators of all types of commercial businesses.
We take our customer service seriously. The Buying Network has been an Accredited Business of the Better Business Bureau since 2001 and has NEVER received a complaint.
Do business with a company you can trust.