download a test of your search abilities here

 

THE BRAND INDEX HYPERLINK

  • If you click this link, an alphabetical list of all the BRANDS in the price list will appear below the search engine at the top of the page.
  • If you click any of the BRANDS in the list you will see a full listing of all the items for that BRAND.
  • If you are just searching the price list, you can scroll through the list to look at prices.
  • If you have logged on and are ordering, you can input the quantity you require of each item as you go down the list.

 

THE GROUP INDEX HYPERLINK

  • If you click this link, a list of all the GROUPS in the price list will appear below the search engine at the top of the page. This list is split into 6 major groups: Commodities, Prepacks, Branded Foods, Branded Non Foods, Chilled Goods and Herbs and Spices. The groups within each major group are listed alphabetically.
  • If you click any of the GROUPS in the list you will see a full listing of all the items for that GROUP.
  • If you are just searching the price list, you can scroll through the list to look at prices.
  • If you have logged on and are ordering, you can input the quantity you require of each item as you go down the list.

 

"BRANDS" & "COMMODITIES"

EACH ITEM IN THE PRICE LIST HAS A "BRAND NAME", AND WHERE AN ITEM IS A GENERIC COMMODITY, LIKE A GRAIN OR A PULSE, THE TYPE OF COMMODITY IS ITS "BRAND NAME".

  • e.g.
  • Lentil (red, green, brown, puy)
  • Elderflower
  • Mung (beans),
  • Butter (beans),
  • Almond (whole, flaked, ground...)
  • Sesame (seeds)
  • etc, etc.

However, occasionally, commodities are truly branded (because a particular supplier is noted for their product, as with porridge oats - e.g. Mornflake, or wheat grain - e.g. Dove's Farm).

 

USING THE SEARCH ENGINE TO NARROW YOUR SEARCH

Use the Brand/Commodity box to type the Brand or Commodity name of the item(s) you want.

  • You need only enter a SUBSTRING of the Brand or Commodity name that you are looking for.
  • Your Brand or Commodity substring should BEGIN the Brand or commodity name you are looking for...
  • For example, if the word "Meridian" is a STRING then "M" and "Me" are substrings as are "Meri""Meridi", etc.
  • Four or five letters usually narrows the seach down quite well
  • The search is NoT sEnSiTiVe tO The CASe of your input, so you needn't worry about matching the Brand or Commodity name exactly...

Tip: the Brand/Commodity link in the brand search displays ALL the "brand names" listed in our price list. Click the brand name to get the full listing for brand you want. (Or, when you have found the brand you want, you could copy and paste the exact name into the Brand/Commodity box.)

Use the Description box to narrow your search further.

  • You need only type a substring of the description you are looking for.
  • Unlike with the "Brand substring", the "description substring" does not have to start at the beginning of the description.
  • If the word "Strawberry" is a string then "Straw" and "berry" are substrings of "Strawberry", as are "Str", "awbe", "rry", etc
  • The search is NoT sEnSiTiVe tO The CASe of your input, so you needn't worry about matching the description exactly.

N.B. Use Brand and Description substrings carefully...

  • If your substrings are too short you will get too large a set of results returned!
  • For instance:

    If you type "M" in the Brand/Commodity box, and no other options (description blank, organic = n/a), you will find that you get all items whose Brand name starts with the letter M, displayed - which is a lot of stuff to wade through! (And leaving all options blank will get you the whole price list!!)

With practice, you can use the Brand and Description boxes to create very powerful searches...

Tip: If you know the Description has more than one word then a good input technique is to type the last few letters of one word followed by the first few letters of the following word.

For instance:

  • If you type "Meridian" (or a substring) in the Brand/Commodity box, and no other options (i.e.Description blank, Organic Required ={n/a}), you will find that you get ALL Meridian items displayed, which is a LOT of lines! It is better to narrow this further...
  • To narrow the search further (say, to find Meridian / Strawberry Spread ), try typing wberry spr in the Description box...you should get JUST 2 ITEMS displayed - one organic, one not. Not a bad result from over 10,500 lines!

 

 

CODES AND ABBREVIATIONS

 

Aqua Oleum
Status Description Size Price VAT RRP Code Split
S Aqua Oleum Aromatherapy Poster 1off £2.70  V £4.75  6834  
  Aqua Oleum Avocado Oil 6x100ml £14.56  V £4.26  3880 h
S Aqua Oleum Basil 3x10ml £8.72  V £5.12  3807 s
  Aqua Oleum Benzoin 3x10ml £4.73  V £2.76  3840  

 

"STATUS" CODES

Each line may be prefixed by a "status code". These codes are there so you can see at a glance those lines we hold in stock at our new warehouse, and those we would have to buy in to order for you.

Status "Z" : Bulk Items held in stock Please ask for quotes on multiples.

  • We generally keep a large stockholding of these items.
  • We can usually offer very competitive prices on these lines if you are prepared to buy in multiples of 5 outers per item or above - please ask for quotes. Item will almost always be in stock.

Status "S": Items usually in stock at Lembas.

  • Status "S" means "Stock Item". These items can normally be added to an existing order, up to the cut-off point as stated in our Terms of Trade. Alternatively these items should be available if you call in for Cash & Carry.
  • Please note : We operate a first come, first served service so, if stocks are low the item may already be "booked" for another customer

Status "T": Temporarily held in stock.

  • Status "T" means temporarily held in Stock. Usually this is where we have been asked for a part case but have had to order in a whole case. Once the remaining stock has been sold we will not automatically buy more until prompted again.
  • We may have still have some stock of these items but any order for these items really needs to be placed by 5.00pm the Thursday before delivery or collection to be sure of getting what you require.

Status "N" : New line recently added to our records.

  • Not normally held in stock so any order for these items needs to be placed with us by 5.00pm the Thursday before delivery or collection.

Status "G"
  • These items appear in our catalogue. We do not sell enough to keep them in our were-house but they are available to order at the standard notice.
  • Any order for these items needs to be placed with us by 5.00pm the Thursday before delivery or collection.

Status "F"

  • These items are ONLY listed on our website.
  • Please place orders for these items by 5.00pm on the Thursday before you expect to receive your delivery or collect your order.

Status "L"

  • These items only appear on our website. Items with status "L" are ONLY available directly from the manufacturer and so will take longer to order in for you.
  • As the order lead time varies from supplier to supplier we will advise you at the time of ordering, how long you can expect to wait for thr item to arrive.

 

"SPLIT" CASE CODES.

Demand for more and more items in smaller and smaller case sizes is still on the increase. So, we have are continuing our policy to accommodate our customers' desire to split cases.

  • Each line is suffixed by a "split code". These codes are there so you can see at a glance the degree to which we will split items.

There are 3 criteria to look for:

Split Code "s".

  • Items that we keep in stock (denoted by the status prefixes "S" or "Z") and that we deem splittable.
  • We will split these lines down to any number of singles.

Split Code "h".

  • Items that we do not usually keep in stock (denoted by Status prefix "G", "F" or no prefix , or the prefixes or "N" or "T") and that we deem splittable.
  • We will split this line down to half cases only.

No split code.

  • Items that we do not deem splittable, whether or not we hold them as stock items.
  • We will not split these items. Our main rationale is to avoid waste - packaging that is easily damaged is not splittable (c.f. flours and pasta)

 

ABBREVIATIONS.

  • There is a set of abbreviations that may be used as part of a product's description, which indicate the particular attributes of that product. So, if you come across these - this is what they mean...
(SO2) Sulphur Dioxide (df) Dairy Free (ww) Wholewheat
(nas) No added Sugar (ns) No Salt (cp) Cold Pressed
(was) With added Sugar (gf) Gluten Free (yf) Yeast Free
(ws) With Salt (ft) Fair Traded (ls) Low Salt

And of course ... (og) - Organic

Abbreviations also sometimes used;

LTOOS - Long Term Out of Stock
DISCO - Discontinued Item

 

PLACING YOUR ORDER

N.B. LEMBAS has a NOTATION for the QUANTITY of an item when you are placing an order. We call it the "SLASH NOTATION".

If you require LESS THAN AN OUTER (i.e. a number of "singles") of a particular item, then please precede the number of singles you require with a "forward-slash" ( / ). For example: "one single" would be noted as "/1", two singles as "/2", etc. "One outer and three singles" would be "1/3" (this is NOT one third). PLEASE SEE OUR RULES ON SPLITTING ITEMS.

YOU MAY USE DECIMALS if you wish, but we find the slash notation far more convenient. For example: If you have an item that comes in an outer that is a twelve-pack and you only want "five singles", it is easier on the brain, and more accurate to write "/5" than it is to calculate the decimal value of "five-twelvths"... If you use the "SLASH NOTATION", the order form will work out the the nearest valid decimal for you anyway.

ORDERING ON-LINE

You need to have an existing account to place an order with us. If you want to order on-line, you will also need to have a password that has been agreed by us. If you do not already have an account or password, or are not sure what they are, or want to change your password, you can contact us, and we will give you your customer code and password.

To order on-line:

  • Click the "Order/Search" button. This is in the main menu to the left hand side of the web page. This will reveal a sub-menu.
  • Click the button that says "Log on & Place Your Order". This will show the Log On form in the main viewing area.
  • In order to log on successfully, you need to supply us with your customer code and password. Code and password must tally and ARE CaSe SenSItiVe. In addition to code and password, you MUST supply us with a name. Actually, this can be anything, but a real name will help us to verify your order. All the other boxes in the log on form are there to help us verify your order and for you to give us delivery instructions, etc, if you wish.
  • Click the "Log On" Button. You will see a request to confirm the information that you have input. This gives you a chance to make any changes to your information or correct any errors. Note also that you will be allocated a Unique ID for your ordering session; this is helpful to us in identifying your order if you have a query.
  • Your Unique ID is used to create a UNIQUE ORDER FILE on our server. Any lines you decide to order will be added to this.
  • Click the "Confirm Log On Data" button. You will now see a SEARCH ENGINE at the top of the page. This is what you use to SEARCH the price list. For more information on how to search the price list, see the section on searching. You can use the BRAND INDEX HYPERLINK, the GROUP INDEX HYPERLINK or BRAND / DESCRIPTION STRINGS to perform your search.
  • Use the Hyperlinks or the Brand / Description Strings to perform your search.
  • Each search you perform will return a set of results in the form of a list of items that match the search criteria.
  • Scroll down the list returned and input the quantity required for each item you want. At the bottom of the list you will find a SUBMIT button.
  • Click the SUBMIT button if you have selected any items for your order. If you do not require any of the items, then simply go to the search engine at the top of the page and perform another search.
  • Clicking the SUBMIT button will return a list of ONLY THOSE ITEMS YOU SELECTED from the list. You have the chance to change the quantities you require from this list. For instance, you may find you have selected the wrong item and want to cancel it. In order to do this you just have to set its outer quantity to 0.
  • Once you have made any necessary corrections, click the CONFIRM button. This adds the CONFIRMED items to your UNIQUE ORDER FILE and will return a list of your confirmed order so far.
  • After you have confirmed these items, use the GROUP INDEX and BRAND INDEX HYPERLINKS or the SEARCH ENGINE to PERFORM YOUR NEXT SEARCH.
  • If at any stage you you want to CANCEL your order, click the CANCEL button at the bottom of the confirmation list. This will cancel ALL previously ordered lines from your order and you will need to log in again.
  • When you have completed your order, click the SEND button at the bottom of the confirmation list to send your compiled order to us. This will return a thank you message and a final confirmation of all the items you have ordered.

 

 

ORDERING OVER THE PHONE / BY FAX

PRODUCT CODES

All products listed have a completely numeric code. Please use this code when ordering, as it helps to achieve greater accuracy and efficiency. We will read back the item to you, to ensure accuracy.

However, it is NOT essential that you use our codes to place your order, as our database is equipped with a great search facility that can find a product quickly by description.

  • If you want to order in this way, please assist us by phrasing your order like this:
Meridian P'Nut Butter Smooth(ws) 3Kg
Lentils Red - Organic 5Kg

 

  • N.B. If you have an automated ordering system that has been set up to use our previous alphanumeric codes, please call us for assistance in updating our old codes with our new ones.
  • In the mean time, until your system is updated, we are able to accept the old codes as well as the new ones.

 

 

MAKING ADDITIONS TO AN ORDER

If you wish to make additions to an order after midday on the Friday BEFORE delivery, then we will do our best to accommodate you, but please note the following limitations:

Items with Status Code "G" or "F" or No Status Code , or new items ("N"):

  • It is unlikely that we will be able to get the item for you in time for delivery.

 

Items that we hold in stock (status "S" or "T" or "Z"):

Up to 2.00pm on the day before delivery:

  • we will accept any number of additions to your order, but cannot guarantee that they will be fulfilled.

Up to 11.00am on the morning of delivery (if your delivery is scheduled for the afternoon) :

  • we will accept up to ten additions to your order even on the morning of delivery. (This limitation to the number of additions allows us to monitor the payload and avoid extensive re-organisation of a load once it has been collated).

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE SEE OUR TERMS OF TRADE