Despite supply chain issues, staff availability and high inflation, Bestway has remained 100% committed to its strategic plans of offering improved service and convenience to customers.
Bestway Wholesale completed the integration of the Bestway Retail and Costcutter Supermarkets Group into the business and delivered another year of strong growth.
The business has led the way with hybrid stores that provide retailers a ‘bespoke’ business to meet their consumers’ needs locally.
Newly appointed Trading Director Bestway Retail Andrew Kenny tells Wholesale Manager what he wants to achieve in the role.
Congratulations on joining Bestway as Trading Director.
Where have you worked before and in what roles?
I was formerly General Manager at Coles Express, part of the Coles Group in Australia and previously to that at Asda.
What will your new role involve?
My role as Trading Director, reporting to Kenton Burchell, Bestway Group Trading Director will be to focus on Bestway’s Centre of Excellence, to refine and enhance its offer for Off-license and Convenience, focussing on franchisees and retailers to support sales. I will also lead the Bestway Retail buying teams based in the Stoke and York offices.
How will you work with franchisees and retailers to support sales?
My role is to lead the trading teams to ensure we provide the best offer for our different customer types, this involves working closely with our retail team who have expert knowledge, experience and relationships with our retailers.
What are your goals for what you want to achieve in the role?
There are several key goals I’m looking to achieve. Firstly, to focus on delivering great value for our retail owners and customers through the cost of living challenges they are facing in 2023. Secondly, driving synergy and best practice across our retail division centres of excellence of Convenience (Costcutter, best-one, Central Convenience) and Off licence (Bargain Booze and Wine Rack). Thirdly, delivering a great culture for the teams to develop and deliver the plan.
How are Bestway’s symbol groups performing?
Our convenience symbol groups continue to deliver strong growth as we have returned to a normal trading pattern after the impact of Covid. Our customers are challenged with the increased cost of living in 2023, to support them we are focusing on our own label ranging, strong promotional campaigns, seasonal events and speed to market with NPD. In addition, we continue to focus on tailoring our offer at a localised level. This is achieved through working with our retail owners on store layouts based on their shopper missions and effective local marketing to drive footfall and basket spend within their stores.
How are the symbol groups’ own label brands performing?
In Costcutter the Co-op own brand range continues to deliver double digit YOY growth for our retail owners with the quality and choice in demand with customers. This offer will continue to be a key focus across the total store in 2023.
Our ‘best-one’ own label brand continues to win industry awards for outstanding quality and typically delivers 30%+ POR which is key in the current climate as retailers are looking for support to drive profit and shoppers are seeking better value at a lower price point.
How many products are in the ranges and what categories do they cover?
In our ranges we have circa 3000 sku’s for the retail division of Bestway across all categories in a convenience store. It is a constant balance to ensure we have the right choice for customers with new NPD but removing underperforming lines quickly from the network.
Are there any new products in the ranges you want to talk about?
The development and expansion of our Bestway Range in wholesale continues so we can offer our retail owners and customers great quality and value to support them through the impact of inflation. New products are introduced in line with trends and changing consumer habits.
How has the wholesale industry changed in recent years?
The market conditions in the wholesale sector remain challenging, with supply chain issues, and staff availability persisting and with the UK market entering into a high inflation environment. The unpredictable and erratic supply issues across the food chain have impacted availability from suppliers. This has had the largest impact on customers (and consumers). Resourcing has become an industry-wide concern, with supply chain and staff availability continuing to be two of the biggest issues facing the sector since the out-break of COVID-19. Additionally, the sharp increase in banking and credit card fees in recent years is becoming more difficult to ignore. Despite the challenging macro-economic backdrop, the wholesale industry has shown resilience.
Despite these challenges, Bestway have remained 100% committed to our strategic plans of offering improved service and convenience to customers. As Bestway Wholesale, we completed the integration of the Bestway Retail and Costcutter Supermarkets Group into the business and delivered another year of strong growth. Through our newly created Centres of Excellence, (the premise of which is to ensure the customer service and experience is supported and driven by experienced and specialist teams), the business has evolved and navigated through the obstacles of the challenges and emerged and led the way with hybrid stores that provide retailers a ‘bespoke’ business to meet their consumers’ needs locally. The traditional store formats have become more flexible as the business homes in on more fluid models.
How digital is Bestway as a business, and do you offer any IT support for your members e.g. ordering apps, online support, delivery tracking?
Our wholesale website and digital tools continue to show strong growth, with ordering Apps delivering higher loyalty and AOV.
We provide our retailers with a choice of ways to grow their sales via Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Jisp and Just Eat.
Our strong field team support retailers, working with our specialist IT and marketing teams across a wide range of digital tools and platforms, from in-house Epos systems to specialist & a dedicated Social Media team.
We are investing in a significant IT upgrade project across the business which will further optimise how we work with our retailers, giving them deeper insights into trends and shopper behaviours.
We continue to support the government’s plans to use ICU age verification technology. The technology, which is designed to ensure our retailers abide by the law and prevent the mis-sell of alcohol to anyone underage, is being trialled at a Central Convenience store in Southampton, close to the university, following the successful trial of the technology at three other stores.
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