The UK’s largest wholesale buying group has shared its strategic direction for the year ahead at annual senior supplier event.
At the Unitas Supplier Partner Directors’ Luncheon, held on 29 January in London, David Cooke took to the stage for the first time as Unitas Chief Operating Officer where he shared the group’s strategic direction for 2026.
With the theme ‘Think Bigger, Win Together’, Cooke shared a key message with more than 110 of the UK’s most senior food and drink suppliers: “Unitas is the UK’s largest buying group, and while scale matters, performance matters even more. This is why we are choosing to focus on what we can genuinely do better together to leverage the scale and power of our group.”
In his presentation, Cooke revealed how Unitas had outperformed the market in both retail and foodservice during 2025: +2.4% versus market (retail) and +11% versus market (hospitality).
Cooke also shared a raft of brand new central initiatives planned in partnership with suppliers and members. These include a review of membership categories, product launch partnerships to deliver execution, compliance and transparent return on investment, and a centralised network model built with strategic partners.
He also announced an acceleration of supplier activations across more than 5,000 convenience retail stores across the Unitas membership, and a revamp of both retail club and Plan for Profit, to provide the group’s convenience retailers with essential resources to their support business growth.
“Our next chapter is about working together in a way that’s simpler, more scalable and commercially effective,” he said. “In the coming months Unitas will focus on fewer isolated initiatives and more scalable programmes with measurable ROI and better execution across members with stronger, more consistent activation. We are building the capabilities to win together across distribution, data and retail acceleration.
“This isn’t about being the loudest group, but about being the most effective group to partner with.”
Suppliers were quick to welcome Cooke’s message. Ben Parker, Vice President Commercial Off Trade, Carlsberg Britvic praised the group, saying: “Unitas offers us huge access to scale and the ability to execute our plans brilliantly with members and unlock opportunities for growth on our drinks portfolio.”
Hannah Dixon, Wholesale, Convenience and Out of Home Sales Director, Nestle agreed: “At Nestle, Unitas means scale and is one of our biggest customers in the UK. With that scale comes visibility and ultimately the investment to support our brands within the membership. The big message for me is that Unitas is in listening mode, there’s changes coming, and there are nuggets of positivity that we can really leverage by being targeted with our data.”
Ruth Fawcett, Associate Wholesale Director, CCEP shared how she and her team work with Unitas: “Unitas is one of our biggest customers and we work very collaboratively with them as a business. The beauty of a buying group is that it brings their members together which allows us to really look at a collaborative approach and build really strong partnerships. As a result, we’ve had some real, real successes with Plan for Profit and how we’ve brough a launch product to market.”
Ed Merrett, Head of Wholesale, PepsiCo explained: “Unitas gives us the ability to speak to 125 members across the UK. The resource you’d need to be able to do that effectively without Unitas is astronomical. Working with Unitas provides us with the ability to execute plans right across the estate.”
In addition to Cooke’s overview of 2026 plans, the event included presentations from TWC’s Tom Fender, a welcome from Chair Dr Jason Wouhra OBE, CEO of Lioncroft Wholesale, and a panel session with Ben Parker, Vice President Commercial Off Trade, Carlsberg Britvic, Hannah Dixon, Wholesale, Convenience and Out of Home Sales Director, Nestle, Asim Sarwar, owner of United Wholesale Scotland, Dr Wouhra and David Cooke.
Attendees were also treated to a keynote speech from author, Olympian and expert in sport science and motivation Professor Greg Whyte OBE.
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