Lomond: The Wholesale Food Co has hit 98% of its pre-Covid sales during June, ahead of its predictions, despite 400 of its regular customers still waiting to reopen post pandemic.
During the lockdown restrictions of 2020, the wholesaler saw sales fall to 45% as many of its foodservice customers had to close or significantly restrict sales. Lomond directors Sam and Barbara Henderson acted quickly to furlough staff, restructure the business and identify where sales could be made, all while looking for ways to support its customers at the same time. This customer support, alongside its Welcome Back, Giving Back promotion, saw sales increase on key lines by up to 400% which, along with the wholesaler’s retail butchery arm, has helped to future proof the business.
“When we were restructuring in April 2020, we made the decision to keep our highly experienced field sales team in full. Fexible furlough has given us the ability to offer support and advice to customers on a part time basis, as our customer base has returned to increased volume. This has been invaluable, allowing us to retain our staff and keep costs low, while our customers continued to trade, often with significantly lower volumes,” said Barbara. “Having our team on the ground, albeit working restricted hours, has meant we not only have offered support to our existing customer base but also in doing this, we’ve been able to attract more than 500 new customers during the pandemic, which we’ve maintained through our focus on quality products, fantastic pricing and the best customer support.”
In addition, Lomond’s decision to diversity in 2016 has paid dividends for the Glasgow-based business. “We made the decision to diversify so we would be more robust and resilient,” said Barbara. “This decision has stood us in good stead as even when our foodservice customers were unable to trade, we were able to continue with our retail and butchery ranges which enabled us to maintain core volume and stock lines which in turn has helped us to attract, and maintain, new customers.”
Lomond is continuing to run its Welcome Back Giving Back promotion.
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