Entering France through distributors: how the market buys, who to approach, and in which language
France buys through wholesalers and buying groups; public demand shows on BOAMP, PLACE and TED; documents must be in French; payment is capped at 60 days.
Marta Zielińska · Market research
Updated 16 October 2026 · 6 min read
France is a large, centralised market with a strong wholesale layer, a public sector that publishes what it buys, and a legal requirement to work in French. A manufacturer that understands those three facts can find the right distributor faster than in most EU countries, because the evidence of who sells what is unusually public.
Putting it simply: French professional customers are mostly served by wholesalers (grossistes), many of them small and organised in sector federations and buying groups. Public buyers publish contract notices and awards on BOAMP, on the State platform PLACE and, above the EU thresholds, on TED, which is how you find the distributors that already win in your category. Product documents, offers and invoices must be in French, and payment terms are capped by statute.
How the market buys
Wholesalers are the backbone
The Confédération des Grossistes de France (CGF), the sector's confederation, describes wholesalers as "un maillon incontournable dans les échanges économiques": the link between manufacturers and professional customers such as retailers, restaurants, pharmacies and craftsmen. CGF gives the sector at 160,000 companies, more than €1,000 billion in turnover and a million employees, organised in around thirty product-sector federations (fruit and vegetables, decoration, electrical equipment, beverages, pharmaceuticals, vehicle parts and so on).
In practice "the distributor" in France is usually a wholesaler with a defined professional customer base, and the federation for your category is a short route to the list.
Buying groups and purchasing centres
Many independent wholesalers and retailers belong to a groupement or réseau that negotiates supplier listings (référencement) centrally and then lets members order under the agreed terms. The group's category buyer is therefore a gatekeeper. We did not find an official statistic on the share of trade that flows through such groups; treat this as a structural description, not a number.
On the public side the equivalent is the centrale d'achat. UGAP, which describes itself as the "première centrale d'achat public en France", sells to public bodies "en dispense de procédure": a public buyer that orders through UGAP does not need to run its own tender. Supplying a public purchasing centre, directly or through a distributor that holds its contracts, is a route into thousands of public buyers without bidding for each one.
Where public demand is visible
French public procurement is published in layers, and the thresholds decide where.
- Below €60,000 excluding VAT (the threshold was raised from €40,000 by Decree No 2025-1386 of 29 December 2025, applying from 1 April 2026; article R2122-8 of the Code de la commande publique), a buyer may purchase supplies or services without prior advertising or competition.
- From €90,000 excluding VAT (article R2131-12), notices from the State, local authorities and their public establishments must be published either in the Bulletin officiel des annonces des marchés publics (BOAMP) or in an authorised legal-notices journal (JAL).
- Above the EU thresholds, which for 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2027 are €140,000 for central government and €216,000 for other contracting authorities (supplies and services), notices also go to TED, the Supplement to the Official Journal of the EU.
Three places matter in practice. BOAMP is the official bulletin, published under the authority of the State. PLACE (marches-publics.gouv.fr) is the State's platform, used by ministries, decentralised State services, public establishments, independent authorities and social-security bodies; suppliers can search notices, download tender files, set daily or weekly alerts, submit bids and consult the essential data of concluded contracts.
The notices that matter most to a manufacturer are the award notices (avis d'attribution). They name the company that won, the buyer, the subject and the value. A wholesaler that keeps winning furniture, lighting or hygiene contracts for hospitals and local authorities is a distributor with proven demand in your category. This is the evidence Cresques collects when you create a market for France: the award notices for your CPV categories, with company-level data kept and personal details removed.
Who to approach
Work from the evidence outward:
- The wholesalers that win public contracts in your category. They have the logistics, the references and the buyer relationships, and they add private professional customers on top.
- The sector federation under CGF for your category, as the index of the rest of the trade.
- The buying groups those wholesalers belong to, because listing decisions are made there.
The first contact goes to the role that buys. France permits a first e-mail under conditions set by the regulator CNIL: a generic company address (info@, contact@) needs no consent, while a named professional address may be used only if the person was told when it was collected that it could be used for prospecting, the message fits their job and every message carries an opt-out — an address copied from a website does not qualify; the lawful-outreach article on France explains them.
Language: French is not optional
The Loi n° 94-665 du 4 août 1994 (the Loi Toubon) states that "l'emploi de la langue française est obligatoire" in the designation, offer, presentation, instructions for use, description of guarantee conditions of goods and services, and in invoices and receipts, and extends the rule to advertising. Article 5 requires contracts to which a public-law entity is party to be written in French, and public buyers apply that to bids and contractual documents.
For a manufacturer that means French product sheets, labels, safety and installation instructions, warranty terms, price lists and invoices before the first serious conversation, not after. The first e-mail or letter in French signals that you know this.
Payment terms and invoicing
Payment terms are set by law. Article L441-10 of the Code de commerce provides that, absent agreement, payment is due within 30 days of receipt of the goods or performance of the service; the agreed term may not exceed 60 days from the invoice date, or 45 days end-of-month if that is expressly stipulated in the contract and is not abusive towards the creditor. A distributor asking for 90 days is asking for something the law does not allow.
Public buyers are held to a 30-day maximum under the Code de la commande publique (articles R2192-10 and following) for the State, local authorities and their establishments, with longer periods for certain categories such as public health establishments; late payment triggers interest at the European Central Bank rate plus eight points and a fixed recovery fee, without any formality.
E-invoicing runs on a fixed timetable. Since 1 September 2026 VAT-registered businesses established in France must be able to receive electronic invoices, and large and mid-sized companies must issue them; from 1 September 2027 small and micro-enterprises must issue them too. Invoices flow through government-approved platforms (plateformes agréées). A supplier with no establishment in France is not itself in scope, but your distributor works through these platforms. Invoices to public buyers already go electronically through Chorus Pro.
What this means for a manufacturer
- Find the distributors through the public trail: award notices on BOAMP, PLACE and TED name the wholesalers that already win in your category.
- Expect to be listed by a buying group before many independents will talk to you; prepare for the group's category buyer.
- Prepare French documents first: product sheets, instructions, warranty, price list, invoice template. The Loi Toubon applies to all of them.
- Negotiate within the legal payment caps (60 days, or 45 days end-of-month) and quote 30 days for public work.
- Expect your French distributor to work through an approved e-invoicing platform (since September 2026), and invoice public buyers through Chorus Pro.
- Make the first contact in French, to the generic address, following CNIL's B2B conditions — not to a named buyer's address copied from a website.
This guide summarises public rules as of 16 October 2026. It is general information, not legal or tax advice. Check the current text of the law and your own case with your adviser.
