Caterforce serves 34,000 customers including restaurants, pubs, cafes as well as schools and care homes across the UK and Ireland.
Gary Mullineux, Managing Director at Caterforce spoke to Wholesale Manager.
How many members do you have and what is their combined turnover?
Caterforce is a buying group going from strength to strength, with nine members and a combined turnover of £806m.
What benefits do you offer members?
For members, being part of Caterforce ensures they benefit from all the commercial advantages of joining a buying group, such as competitive buying prices through economy of scale.
With five award-winning own brands, a centralised rebate management and an expert buying team running regular tenders and bespoke promotions, Caterforce members are fully supported and know that they are set up for success.
In addition, members have access to a full marketing service provided by Caterforce, including trade PR support, social media content creation and enterprise email solutions, plus a specialist food and drink photographic studio. Members can also access Caterforce’s in-house creative team.
To ensure they stay ahead of the curve, members are also given quarterly food and drink trend reports and advice from the group’s in-house data analysis team with ecommerce expertise.
What makes your group unique?
Caterforce prides itself on its small, exclusive membership. With no competition clauses within the constitution, members can benefit from best practice and knowledge that is freely shared. All nine members are regional champions, proud of their heritage and independence, and Caterforce both recognises and celebrates their difference.
Every member of the group has an active role in group decision making, and the group works collaboratively to inspire, encourage and support each other.
What is truly unique about Caterforce is that it has the largest average turnover per member in the sector, meaning members are the lowest cost for suppliers to service.
Do you have an own brand range? How many products are in the range? Do you have any new extensions to the range at the moment?
Caterforce has five successful award-winning own brands, offering more than 400 products across all categories. Chefs’ Selections includes store cupboard staples for every kitchen, as well as showstoppers such as its cake range. Roast440 coffee offers a range of single origin and blended coffee beans and filter coffees while Eden Grove is a range of 100% pure fruit juices, ideal for hospitality settings as well as the on-trade.
ProClean provides cleaning and hygiene products for all settings.
In response to customer demand for high quality products, Caterforce has recently launched a new premium tier of its successful own brand range in order to enable foodservice operators to differentiate themselves in a highly competitive market. The Chefs’ Selections Premium Collection is a brand new range with products curated for their quality and visual appeal, created for operators looking to elevate their offering to meet growing consumer demand for premium dining experiences.
In addition, during the first half of 2024, Caterforce is launching 20 new own brand products, including a new summer cake range in direct response to customer demand.
Do you run promotions? What kind of promotional offers do you have?
Every month Caterforce’s in-house creative team produces bespoke promotional brochures for its members’ customers which are shared with their customers online and in printed promotional magazines.
Do you run events for members?
Caterforce hosts several events throughout the year including three supplier presentation days to source new products and suppliers. The buying group also run sales team roadshows to educate members’ teams on Caterforce’s own brand ranges, as well as marketing events and food study tours to inspire members. Every two years, Caterforce hosts a supplier conference and awards dinner with more than 250 suppliers in attendance.
What news do you have to share with us?
2024 has been fantastic for the group so far. Pilgrim Foodservice has acquired a new depot while Castell Howell Foods appeared on The Grocer Top 30 Wholesalers list once again. Our members have bold, ambitious plans for the year ahead and are making great progress in achieving them.
At Caterforce head office, we have embarked on an apprenticeship programme for our data team. This scheme will entice new talent into the industry and ensure we are taking full advantage of digital advances including AI to directly benefit both our members and supplier partners.
Caterforce has also launched its new website and members portal – a one-stop-shop for all members to access everything they need to grow their sales, and includes the latest supplier news, insight and marketing assets.
In addition, our new Premium Collection range launched and received excellent feedback from members, customers and suppliers.
Later this year we will be holding our supplier conference at Wembley Stadium on Thursday 7 November. We can’t wait to get all our members and suppliers together and celebrate how far we have come and where we are going next!
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