The Wholesale Group brought together over 350 suppliers and members at Cheltenham Racecourse for its annual Trade Show and awards – its largest gathering to date and a clear reflection of the group’s continued growth in year two. Supported by major industry sponsors including AG Barr Group, Coca-Cola, Kellanova, Carlsberg Britvic, PepsiCo and Nestlé / Nestlé Professional, the event featured 99 exhibition stands and brought together 130 attendees from retail and foodservice wholesaler businesses from across the membership.
The day also featured cooking demonstrations, product tastings, giveaways and interactive stands, creating further opportunities for discussion, discovery and networking throughout the event.
The Wholesale Group also used the event to showcase its growing portfolio of own-brand ranges, available exclusively to its members. CHEF Approved and CHEF Prestige are developed specifically for caterers and foodservice operators, covering everything from coffee — available in both front-of-house and back-of-house formats — to a broad range of food and catering essentials, including the CORE range of fruit juices in 1-litre slimline Tetra cartons.
CLEAN Solutions completes the portfolio with professional hygiene and cleaning products for the catering sector. Combined, the four ranges span more than 300 products across eight categories.
As always, the Trade Show finished with the highly-anticipated awards celebration evening, introduced by The Wholesale Group’s chairman Mark Aylwin, which brought together over 350 people from across the industry to recognise leaders in engagement, innovation and collaboration.
Jess Douglas, managing director at The Wholesale Group, said: “Very few events in the industry can showcase quality and innovation on this scale, across both retail and foodservice, but our Trade Show continues to evolve into a flagship event for the sector that really gets people talking.
“As a buying group, we bring together forward-thinking suppliers and connect them with businesses who can help get their products into the market. The Trade Show is a powerful platform for collaboration, and a key part of our overall strategy. It’s important to share learnings, connect like-minded businesses and recognise talent in this way, to enable collective growth.”
Recognising performance
The Wholesale Group’s Trade Day goes hand-in-hand with its annual awards evening, recognising suppliers and members across 17 individual categories for their efforts across engagement, social media, charity contributions and overall performance. This year also saw the introduction of a new Outstanding Achievement award.
Chairman Mark Aylwin introduced the awards and reflected on the resilience of the sector, noting that wholesale has faced more disruption in the past five years than in the previous 20. He also pointed to a changing future for wholesale, shaped by data, technology and partnership, and said he was proud to see the energy and momentum across the event.
This year’s award winners were as follows:
Suppliers
- Service Supplier of the Year (sponsored by The Wholesale Group): Orderlion
- Digital Supplier of the Year (sponsored by Insight): Coca-Cola Europacific Partners
- Chilled & Frozen Supplier of the Year (sponsored by Dash AI): Lutosa
- Non-Food Supplier of the Year (sponsored by Accelerate): Wrapex
- Own Brand Supplier of the Year (sponsored by CHEF Approved): Lantmannen
- Retail Supplier of the Year (sponsored by CORE Juices): AG Barr Group
- Foodservice Supplier of the Year (sponsored by The Wholesale Group): Kerry Foods
Members
- Social Media Member of the Year (sponsored by PepsiCo Walkers): Thomsons
- Head Office Engagement Member of the Year (sponsored by AG Barr): Dennis Edwards
- Frozen Member of the Year (sponsored by Lantmannen): Holland Bazaar
- Own Brand Member of the Year (sponsored by FoodFellas): Ewood Foods
- Foodservice Member of the Year (sponsored by RH Amar): Charles Saunders
- Retail Member of the Year (sponsored by Carlsberg Britvic): Universal
- New Member of the Year (sponsored by Kellanova): AC Georgiades
- Green Wholesaler Award (sponsored by CCEP): All Shires Foods
- Charity and Community (sponsored by Nestlé): Millennium
- Outstanding Achievement – NEW for 2025 (sponsored by Flora): Waterside Food Services
Vinnie Liddar, Business Unit Controller at AG Barr said “Last night was a real moment of pride for everyone at AG Barr. To be recognised by The Wholesale Group as Retail Supplier of the Year 2025 is incredibly special, particularly in such a competitive and customer-led environment. Since launching in January 2025, The Wholesale Group has quickly established itself as a major force within the channel, making this recognition especially meaningful as a reflection of the strength of our partnership and the consistency of our execution.
It was also a pleasure to build on that momentum at the Trade Show at Cheltenham Racecourse, which was extremely well organised and provided a valuable opportunity to connect with both members and suppliers. The energy throughout the event reflected the strength and ambition within wholesale today. We are proud of what we have achieved together over the past year and excited about the opportunities ahead. Our thanks go to Tom, Jess, Coral, Kirsty and the wider The Wholesale Group head office team for their guidance and support.”
Kevin Hawes, National Account Manager for Kerry Foods said: “We were very honoured to win Foodservice Supplier of the Year, and it came as a great surprise. It is especially nice to be recognised by our customers for the work we have done, and it really reflects the effort the team puts in behind the scenes.
The event itself was also a great opportunity to speak directly with members we do not always get the chance to meet, showcase new product development and bring it to life by showing pack sizes, appearance and taste. It gives us a strong reason to follow up those conversations afterwards too. We launched new products last year and have more coming imminently, so it was the ideal platform for people to try what is next. What we value about The Wholesale Group is the effective, open and constant communication across the business. It is a collaborative relationship between supplier, head office and members, and that triangular approach is important to us. We are in it for the long haul, not a quick sale and run.”
Rebecca Morgan, Head of Marketing at Waterside Food Services, Marketing Manager, Waterside Food Services, said: “After such a turbulent six months for our team during the move, it is an amazing honour to receive the first Outstanding Achievement award and be recognised by our peers across The Wholesale Group, its suppliers and fellow members.
Our relocation has future-proofed the business, giving us the space and capacity to become more efficient, broaden our offer and pursue new opportunities that were previously out of reach. Having been part of the group since the Confex days, we have seen first-hand how The Wholesale Group has opened up access to new suppliers, stronger own-label ranges and valuable networking opportunities that continue to support our growth.”
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