No-one could accuse Kerim Suavi of not understanding the wholesale business. He has been in the industry since the tender age of ten, beginning by helping his father with deliveries.
Now he is the MD of Crowbond Foodservice, managing a team of 65 people which includes monitoring both the night shift and the daytime team.
Kerim Suavi, Managing Director, Crowbond Foodservice, tells Wholesale Manager what he wants to achieve in the role and how Crowbond will be a paperless business by the end of the year.
Where have you worked before and in what roles?
I’ve spent my entire career at Crowbond, beginning from the age of ten, when I would assist my dad with the delivery routes. Having such a long history from the company has given me extensive experience and a profound connection with every area of the business. Today I serve as Crowbond’s Managing Director.
What does your current role involve?
My role has changed profoundly over the last four years, starting from a point where I could run the entire operation on my own with very little help, to today, where I am responsible for a team of 65 employees, realising their strengths and giving them the best possible tools and instruction they can get to win.
Today, I’m what I like to call a “centrist” managing director, committed to maintaining a presence in every part of the business. This approach allows me to understand the opportunities and pressures each department faces. Whether it’s assisting the QC team or working on the acquisition of a new company, I believe my time is one of the company’s greatest assets and really makes a difference in our business, so I try to spend it as wisely as possible. A typical day for me starts around 11pm when I come into the business and work with operations until 5am, go to the gym for an hour and come back into the office at 9am to work with our daytime team.
What are your goals for what you want to achieve in the role?
From the beginning, my goal has been to scale the business that my father built. One of the ways I’ve done this is through acquisitions. Over the last five years, we’ve acquired about half a dozen smaller specialty wholesalers, which has grown our employee base by a factor of 10; increased our product selection beyond fruit and veg into a complete assortment including dairy, meat, dry stores and frozen food; and expanded our delivery area into Central and Greater London, Hertfordshire, Essex and South Cambridgeshire.
I’ve also invested quite a bit in technology. I’m a big believer that the options for wholesalers to grow their business through technology are nearly unlimited, especially considering how antiquated many of the processes that this industry uses are.
In addition to an e-commerce site where customers can place orders, we’ve also rolled out Choco’s ordering app, which makes it super easy for our customers to browse the entire Crowbond offering. We’ve also leveraged Choco AI, which auto-captures all incoming orders and turns them into digital orders that go straight into our back-end software. The AI understands a variety of accents and speaking styles, which is massively helpful in an industry where there are a lot of non-native English speakers. Not only does it cut down on errors – which are common in this part of the process – it’s allowed us to increase the number of orders we process from 50-60 per day to up to 200. This has been a massive unlock for us, as our ordering team was struggling under a deluge of orders following the recent acquisitions. Now, one person spends a few minutes per day reviewing orders, and I’ve been able to repurpose the rest of that team to work on other, more strategic areas of the business.
We’re also in the process of building our own proprietary technology, starting with our own ERP system, which we decided to create after none of the off-the-shelf systems met our needs. Lastly, we’re also working on a delivery app that is similar to the ones that many food delivery apps use. Ours will make it easier for customers and drivers to communicate along the way and coordinate on the most convenient and precise delivery location.
How is your company performing?
Since the end of COVID-19, Crowbond has been on a fast track for growth, and we have no intention of slowing down. Our buy-and-build model allows us to scale rapidly while sidestepping common growing pains that other businesses face, such as the challenges of recruiting and training. By acquiring established businesses and integrating them into our operations, we have been able to accelerate our expansion without compromising on quality or service. This approach not only strengthens our market position but also ensures that we have a highly skilled and experienced team in place from day one. As we continue to grow, we remain committed to maintaining the agility and innovation that have been key to our success, ensuring that we can adapt to new opportunities and challenges with confidence.
Are you a member of a buying group? What benefits do you get from being a member of the group?
We have been offered membership in a buying group, but we declined because we didn’t believe it was the right fit for our business. To maintain our growth trajectory, we need to stay focused on our plan. Partnering with another wholesaler and creating a buying group of our own is something we might consider down the line.
How far is the geographical reach of your business?
We’re based in East London and currently deliver about 50 miles in every direction around London, including Central and Greater London, Hertfordshire, Essex and South Cambridgeshire. The acquisitions we’ve done over the last few years have really expanded our delivery area, and enabled us to serve customers in remote locations that might otherwise struggle to get their orders.
Do you have an e-commerce site for your customers?
Yes, we do! Our e-commerce site allows customers to place orders 24/7. This platform, along with partner ordering apps like Choco, is essential to our market position.
How digital is your business, and do you offer any IT support for your members e.g. ordering apps, online support, delivery tracking?
As mentioned above, we’re committed to continuously investing in digital solutions and technology has been one of the keys to our ability to grow and be successful. At Crowbond we believe telesales teams and manual processes belong in the past and there’s a very clear digital future for F&B wholesale, with technology being a key competitive differentiator.
At the moment, we have a team of three developers working on our cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and online platform, which will be our biggest investment in tech ever. The first stage of this development is expected to be completed in early 2025. Once launched, customers will not only be able to browse products, check prices and schedule orders but also access a comprehensive self-service portal. This portal will allow customers to view their live account balances, make payments, download invoices, and track product pricing. Customers will also have the capability to upload videos showing how they’d like their deliveries to be handled and use the power of What3Words to specify the exact delivery location. They will be able to see how far away their delivery is and if any products have been substituted. We think there is a need for stronger communications with customers and suppliers, and our hope is that this will help them run their businesses more effectively.
Additionally, our entire product catalogue is available online and via the Choco app, where customers can browse everything we offer and see the latest pricing. Incoming orders are processed by Choco AI, which enables us to get them out the door faster and cut errors – which we try to avoid at all costs to keep our customers happy – down to nearly zero. And finally, Crowbond is in the process of rolling out things like bar-coded picking and product passports that will enable us to be a paperless business by the end of the year.
How many products does your business supply and what categories do you cover?
We’re a full foodservice business with over 2000 products across produce, dairy, meat, dry stores and frozen food.
How has the wholesale industry changed in recent years?
The biggest change is that food costs are higher than ever. Many of our customers are struggling to balance razor thin profit margins with increased competition and fewer customers dining out. Given this, it’s important for us to be true partners, educating them on how to make good buying decisions. For example, we’ll try to steer them towards products in our catalogue that can be listed on menus as premium dishes despite having low ingredient and labour costs.
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