A cancelled order or discontinued product line can leave a manufacturer with usable stock and no obvious buyer. Refreshi Exchange is developing a B2B marketplace to help businesses find another route to market before that inventory loses its value.
A product can lose its place on a supermarket shelf long before it becomes unusable. Packaging changes, cancelled orders and decisions to discontinue a line can leave suppliers holding goods that still have commercial value but no longer fit their original sales channel.
For South African manufacturers and distributors, finding an alternative buyer is a race against time. The remaining shelf life must accommodate negotiations, transport and the buyer’s ability to use or resell the goods. As that window narrows, so can the seller’s options.
Refreshi Exchange is building a business-to-business marketplace around this problem. Its proposition is to connect surplus food and consumer goods with verified commercial buyers, giving suppliers an additional way to recover value from inventory.
In written responses to AfricaBusiness.com, Richard Honeyman, co-founder and chief commercial officer of Refreshi Exchange, explained both the opportunity and the challenges of establishing a market in which the right buyers must be available for the stock on offer.
From available stock to completed sales
In responses supplied on 17 September 2026, Honeyman said the Exchange had been officially live for two months following a soft launch.
In an update supplied on 5 October 2026, he reported more than 10 completed transactions, 41 verified sellers and 55 active lots, with just under R5 million in surplus inventory listed.
The distinction between those figures matters. The figure of just under R5 million represented stock offered for sale, rather than the value of completed transactions. The company did not disclose aggregate sales value or volume. In his September responses, Honeyman said it was too early to report a meaningful sell-through rate.
“From day one our focus has been on building the right mix of product categories, not chasing raw sign-up numbers,” he said.
For a surplus marketplace, a growing catalogue is only one part of the business. Buyers must want the products available, be able to accept the quantities offered and have enough time to put them to use.
The platform’s early challenge is therefore to develop a sufficiently varied network of buyers. More listings can create more opportunities, but they do not automatically produce completed sales.
Why surplus develops before products expire
Honeyman identified overproduction as a common reason for surplus, including cases where demand forecasts exceed actual sales. Minimum production runs at manufacturers and contract producers can also generate excess inventory independently of forecasting accuracy.
Cancelled orders and packaging changes create further complications. A product may still be usable, yet no longer match the requirements of the customer or retail channel for which it was produced.
Retailers’ own acceptance windows can also leave suppliers seeking alternatives. According to Honeyman, a product can have six months or more of remaining shelf life and still fall outside a particular retailer’s requirements. He also described discontinued lines offered through the Exchange with more than a year remaining.
These examples broaden the discussion beyond last-minute clearance of near-expiry goods. They show how changes in commercial arrangements can create surplus well before a product reaches the end of its usable life.
For suppliers, recognising that situation early leaves more time to find a suitable buyer and negotiate a workable price.
Finding buyers for different kinds of surplus
Commodity products have been easier to move than some manufactured, branded goods, Honeyman said. An ingredient that several businesses can use may have a broader potential market than a finished product aimed at a particular customer group.
“On the buyer side we’re equally focused on getting the right mix, since a narrow buyer base means surplus tends to funnel into the same few categories,” he said.
Honeyman described an unnamed international manufacturer with recurring surplus of a commodity that a restaurant chain could purchase for its own operations. The restaurant business also had a retail product line struggling to move through traditional channels, making it a potential seller as well as a buyer.
The example illustrates how the same business can participate on both sides of a secondary market. However, the company did not supply transaction values, quantities or supporting records, so the financial outcomes cannot be quantified from the information provided.
In his September responses, Honeyman said activity was concentrated in Gauteng, although the Exchange operated nationally. The priority was to deepen domestic trading activity and broaden the buyer network, with no active plans to expand beyond South Africa.
What makes a secondary sale worthwhile?
The price of surplus depends partly on how much time remains to find a buyer. Honeyman said goods with longer remaining shelf life can be offered at prices intended to attract buyers while preserving some margin for sellers. Discounts tend to deepen as that window closes.
The company did not provide a typical discount range or a measured rate of value recovery.
For a seller, the commercial calculation extends beyond the agreed price. Transport, handling, storage and any transaction charges affect the amount ultimately recovered. A sale that looks attractive before those costs may deliver a much smaller benefit once the goods have changed hands.
Buyers face a similar calculation. They need to assess the total delivered cost and whether they can use or resell the stock within the time available. A low purchase price alone does not make a consignment commercially useful.
As the Exchange develops, completed sales, time to sale, repeat purchases and sellers’ net recovery will be more informative measures of its performance than the value of inventory listed.
Trust remains essential to the transaction
Honeyman said personal relationships remain important when bringing South African businesses onto the platform. Sellers and buyers often want a face-to-face introduction before committing to a new trading channel.
The company’s processes also depend on product information and verification. According to Honeyman, stock remains with the seller while listed, and sellers must record best-before dates and batch numbers. The platform checks buyer identity and legitimacy before onboarding.
Sellers determine their preferred shelf-life thresholds and whether to pursue resale or another route, including donation. These are the company’s descriptions of its operating procedures; independent assessments of storage conditions and cold-chain performance were not supplied.
For participating businesses, the practical questions remain specific to each consignment: its condition, location, handling requirements, delivery arrangements and suitability for the intended use.
“The data on available surplus already exists within manufacturers’ systems, it’s simply never been made visible or actionable at scale,” Honeyman said.
Making that information accessible can help businesses identify opportunities. Converting an opportunity into a successful transaction still requires confidence in the product, the counterparty and the delivery process.
The wider food-loss challenge
A CSIR study published in 2021 estimated South Africa’s annual food losses and waste at 10.3 million tonnes. That was equivalent to 34.3% of local production or approximately 45% of available food supply after accounting for imports and exports. Processing and packaging accounted for 49% of the estimated total.
The calculations used average food-supply quantities for 2014–2018. They provide historical context rather than a measurement of food waste in 2026.
The national estimate also cannot be treated as the volume available for commercial resale. Losses occur for different reasons, and the CSIR briefing notes that some material is diverted into animal feed and other non-food uses.
A surplus marketplace addresses a more specific opportunity: goods that remain suitable for use but need an alternative buyer. It can sit alongside donation and other appropriate routes, while businesses continue to address the causes of avoidable surplus.
Refreshi Exchange’s early experience highlights the work involved in creating that market. Identifying available stock is the starting point. Its commercial value depends on finding buyers who can act in time, completing transactions reliably and leaving participants with a reason to return.
This article is based on written responses from Richard Honeyman supplied to AfricaBusiness.com on 17 September 2026 and an update supplied on 5 October 2026. Business figures and examples are company-reported. National food-loss estimates come from the CSIR’s May 2021 briefing, “Increasing reliable, scientific data and information on food losses and waste in South Africa.”