Tom Gittins, Managing Director of The Wholesale Group, said:
“The Wholesale Group has 230 wholesale members, and the majority are family-owned businesses that service their local geographical area. They are focused on service, which requires a dense product mix, with a high turnover of stock. As a result, they need small drops from suppliers on a regular basis.
“With suppliers looking to refine their wholesale route to market and seeking efficiencies through larger drops, it has become harder for the smaller wholesaler – those who would rather take more lines but less volume into their warehouse.
“The Wholesale Group operates a central distribution facility as a member service, helping our supplier partners to continue to connect with all our wholesalers regardless of their size. This facility provides ambient products across retail and foodservice, with a minimum spend of £2,000.
“To help support this service across chilled and frozen, we also have specialist wholesale members who can take volume into their warehouses and then distribute with mixed pallet consolidation to other members.
“We continue to develop the route to market for our supplier partners, while at the same time ensuring every member can buy any product through Group supply.
“The market will keep consolidating, and we’re showing that it is possible to lock in growth by working together to find the solutions within our network of wholesalers.”