Less online – dare to do more offline!
Today, the grill market offers an enormous variety of products. However, in online retail, brands and products are becoming increasingly comparable and interchangeable – and price pressure is growing. What easily gets lost in the process is what grilling is all about at its core: fire, enjoyment, community, and the outdoor experience. These are precisely the emotional moments that can only be conveyed to a limited extent digitally. Online, you can compare products, check prices, and buy with a few clicks. But advice, haptics, smell, taste, demonstration, and personal exchange arise where grilling is truly experienced: in specialist grill shops, at trade fairs, at grilling courses, in outdoor kitchens, and at live events. Specialist retail is therefore not a downstream sales channel. Rather, it is the central experience, consulting, and trust space for grill brands.
InterGrill
InterGrill
Central marketing for specialist retailers, trade and brand expertise
The guiding principle behind InterGrill
The new association combines specialist grill retailers, butcher shops, grill brands, and FIRE&FOOD to form an efficient network. Its goal is to reposition brick-and-mortar specialist retailers as the leading place for grilling expertise and enjoyment, and at the same time to build a collaboratively organized, digitally supported marketing system.
Importance of specialist grill retailers for brands
Grill brands need specialist retailers to differentiate their products from being easily comparable. While online retail primarily highlights price, availability, and technical data, specialist retailers convey the emotional and practical significance of a product. Especially for high-quality, emotionally charged products that require explanation, specialist retailers are an indispensable brand ambassador. They create credibility, make quality visible, and convert interested parties into loyal users of a brand.
Vision of the association
The association establishes a system in which each participant takes on a clearly defined role:
| Participants | Role in the association |
| Member businesses | Local experience, consultation, and sales points; independent management of their assortment and sales channels |
| FIRE&FOOD | Editorial impulse generator, moderator, media platform, and marketing partner of the association |
| Purchasing Council | Selection and evaluation of common products, brands, and assortments for association members |
| Grill Brands | Partners and suppliers; access to qualified specialist retailers and a relevant grilling community |
| Butcher Shops | Competence partner for enjoyment, meat, origin, preparation, and regional cuisine |
| Consumers | Benefit from orientation, inspiration, advice, events, and quality-assured offers |
The model preserves the entrepreneurial freedom of individual retailers. Member businesses generally continue to manage their existing assortments and their own online activities. In addition, they gain access to a collaboratively developed association offering.
Business model and sales logic
1. Brick-and-mortar retail as the focal point
The association's products are primarily offered stationary through member businesses. This ensures that specialist retailers remain the place where products are explained, demonstrated, and emotionally enhanced.
The association supports retailers by:
- Joint product recommendations and curated assortments.
- Campaign concepts and content.
- Product training, consulting concepts for grilling schools.
- Event formats such as grilling courses, tastings, and brand presentation days.
- Editorial visibility through FIRE&FOOD.
- Joint campaigns to activate end consumers.
2. Centrally regulated online sales
The online offering of the association's products is centrally organized. This creates consistent brand presentation, clear price and communication structures, and a professionally maintained digital sales channel.
Online sales are commissioned to the respective member business based on a regional selection. This principle combines the convenience of digital purchasing with the regional performance of specialist retailers.
The retailer thus benefits from customer interest even if the purchase does not take place directly in their store. At the same time, the consumer remains assigned to a specific local contact person – for example, for advice, accessories, service, complaints, or participation in events.
The role of FIRE&FOOD
FIRE&FOOD plays a key role in the development phase. The magazine and publisher have high thematic credibility in the grilling community, access to consumers, and editorial expertise in fire, enjoyment, and grilling culture.
FIRE&FOOD will become the media organ and moderator of the association. The editorial team will increasingly focus parts of its content on the association's offerings, retailers, events, and topics – without losing the necessary editorial quality and relevance for its readership.
The upcoming November issue can already make the association visible and activate interested specialist retailers to participate. This creates an initial communication space for members, brands, and consumers before the operational launch.
Membership and activation phase
The association is to be founded after the resolution at a congress in Cologne in October and become operational from January.
Until the official founding, FIRE&FOOD Verlag will manage the start-up phase. The goal is to lose no time between idea, founding resolution, and market development.
The existing FIRE&FOOD Business Abo serves as a low-threshold entry for interested retailers. Participants gain early access to media services, the information network, and initial joint activities.
With the launch of the association in January 2027, participants in the Business Abo will be admitted to the association and receive a simple membership status. The magazines included in the Business Abo are intended to be distributed free of charge to interested consumers in the future. They will thus become an effective instrument for local association advertising, customer loyalty, and increasing footfall.
Success factors
The association will be successful if it is perceived not as an additional purchasing organization, but as a visible movement for grilling culture, professional expertise, and enjoyment.
Key factors are:
- A clear priority for the economic interests of member dealers.
- A high-quality, demonstrably curated association offering.
- Fair and transparent rules for online sales and regional commissions.
- Strong local activation through events, consulting, and experiential formats.
- Editorial reach and credible communication via FIRE&FOOD.
-
Partnerships with brands that not only supply specialist retailers but actively seek to strengthen them.
Positioning
The association positions itself as a leading network for qualified barbecue specialist retailers in the German-speaking world. It connects trade, brands, media, and culinary expertise in a model that combines digital reach with real customer proximity.
The goal is not to forgo online retail. Rather, online is used for access, inspiration, and transactions – while advice, experience, service, and community once again take place where they are most effective: at local specialist retailers.
We look forward to your interest in collaborating with InterGrill. Further information will be provided after the FIRE&FOOD BBQ WEEK. Please answer our questionnaire in your expression of interest. You can download it here as a fillable PDF.
