2025 began with a bang for the UK’s newest wholesale buying group. The Wholesale Group officially launched on January 1st, bringing together the members of Confex and Fairway Foodservice.
Six brand new members then joined the group within the first week of January.
Joint Managing Director, Tom Gittins tells Wholesale Manager what he wants the group to achieve and what are the biggest benefits the group offers its members.
The Wholesale Group announced six new members in the first week of January. Tell us more about that.
It has been a great start to the year. Since November, we knew we were going to do this, we had eight weeks of getting ready for the new group, integrating the two offices. The PR from that resulted in quite a lot of wholesalers reaching out and wanting to join the group, which is fantastic. We have a range of wholesalers, retail and foodservice, delivered and cash & carry, plus some export. That showcases the diversity of The Wholesale Group. We are now the largest delivered wholesale group in the UK. We’re about being the home of the independent wholesaler, family businesses that have been going for multiple generations, but very diverse. It’s about delivered wholesale, it’s about local wholesale, it’s about family wholesale, but it’s also quite large on the retail. We’ve got export, we’ve got every postcode covered and every type of wholesaler in the group. That’s our strength. That’s what a buying group should be, strong in all areas. We cover every aspect, we also have no membership fees, no joining fees. We’re open to wholesalers of every size, as long as you’re a true independent, then we would like to speak to you. We’re now at £4.51 billion in turnover. We have grown again a little bit with some new members. We account for 13.7% of the UK wholesale market, as quoted by the FWD. There’s a new report coming out from the FWD which says the wholesale channel is worth £33 billion. We’re worth £4.51 billion of that, about 13.7%, the biggest players are Booker, then Unitas, then us. Beyond that, there is Cisco, then Brakes and then the other buying groups are quite a lot smaller. We are the second largest retail buying group and the largest foodservice buying group. Combined, we are quite a beast.
Can you tell us a little of the history of the group?
The Wholesale Group only started on January 1st this year. It brought together the Fairway foodservice buying group and the Confex buying group. Confex has been going for 53 years, and Fairway has been going for 40 years. Bringing them both together created over 90 years’ worth of experience in the wholesale channel and brings together the best of foodservice and retail to create the second largest buying group, it’s very exciting. We have 25 head office staff spread across our head office in the Cotswolds and our test kitchen and hub in Huddersfield, and we have 255 wholesale members. We had a senior supplier briefing in London, which was very well received by suppliers. We have created the home of the independent wholesaler, we are a multi-generational family business, you can know that you’ve got your future safe and secure with us.
What are the biggest benefits that you offer to members?
We offer the most diverse breadth of pricing, promotions and terms. We deal with every product category. Many buying groups are quite specialist in what they do, whether they be foodservice or retail. We’ve got that strength in diversity. If you are a wholesaler that would like to expand into different areas, to have access to preferential terms, pricing and promotions across every product category, then we are the group for you. On top of that, we are the only group to have no joining or membership fees. We’re affordable, we’re open, we’re a true cooperative. Every member gets a share of the profits, and that’s all about how much you put through the group. The more turnover you do through the group, the more you do with head office marketing campaigns, you will receive a higher proportion of the profit at the end of the year. It doesn’t cost you anything and you get a share of the profit. It seems too good to be true, but it really is true.
How digital is your business and do you offer IT support for members, e.g. ordering apps, online support or delivery tracking?
We are focused on service and driven by tech. We were the first to have an ordering app some years ago. We were one of the first to get involved with data, with TWC. We are really driven by the data and the sales out to drive incremental growth with our suppliers and members. Our data read is worth £800 million and is the largest read on independent wholesale. We are led by tech, we’ve got an Accelerate platform, which is tied up via EDI and API, through our whole network, through the suppliers, through to the members and their customers. It’s got all the products, pricing, specs, promotions, and saves massive amounts of resource because it’s all linked up. We are focused on central distribution and central payment to economise the supply chains of the suppliers, but to also make every product accessible to every member at any time. If there are prohibitive minimum drop requirements of suppliers, as they continue to consolidate in this market, then we have hubs. We’ve got a central distribution facility we have run for 15 years. We have hubs in which larger members can trade with the smaller members. We work very closely with the suppliers. Through the data, we can see where products are ending up and help them to maximise their supply chain efficiencies.
Suppliers are moving towards full load capacities in their CO2 objectives, but they also want to make cost savings. We are there to help them get their product to every nook and cranny of the UK market. We have 90 years’ experience of doing that, so we have unparalleled knowledge and experience. Our members are local wholesalers, they know their local area better than anyone else. They’re focused on service, they can deliver a better, quicker, more efficient service than the larger nationals. That’s why independent wholesale will continue to thrive, however much we see larger conglomerates buying or trying to extend their market share. We are now bigger than the nationals, apart from Booker, and we’ve got the power and strength to ensure that independent wholesale and family businesses thrive in the wholesale sector.
How many products does your business supply and what categories do you cover?
We cover every product category, chilled, frozen and ambient in retail and foodservice, plus we do non-food and beauty. Across the 255 wholesale members, there’s got to be over half a million products. We, through the centre, wouldn’t have quite that many, because some members have their own brands, or would import from different countries. They will be specialists in their own product category. We have DCS as a member, but they are also a supplier, they manufacture a large range of health & beauty products, so we wouldn’t be supplying those through our group. It would be safe to say over 300,000 products, but across the group, in terms of the membership supplying, it would be over half a million. We cover everything. We work with over 400 suppliers, and that would span every product category. There is certainly a route to market there for every brand that is looking to accelerate into the wholesale sector, and definitely the independent wholesale sector, which is the independent shop, the independent eatery or pub, the ones that aren’t in the large chains. That’s where we come in, accounting for £3.51 billion of turnover in the UK wholesale market.
Are there any new products in the ranges you want to talk about?
We’re seeing some growing categories, energy continues to grow. I think healthy drinks is a product category that’s looking to grow as well. I think the NPD from the major brands is moving towards health and wellbeing. If you look at food, it’s about spice, for example Walkers recently launched Extra Flamin’ Hot, it’s about dialling that up and really tapping into the world food trends. By making things spicier, you increase your market share. Young people like spicy but also the UK is an increasingly ethnic market and that’s something brands want to be a part of. There are many trends going on. We’re definitely excited about a lot of the NPD coming out. We also have quite a large own brand ourselves. We’ve got a £25 million own brand, which is foodservice focused, and that will continue to grow. Our aim is to get that to £100 million within 10 years. And that’s a real bedrock for our point of difference, for our wholesalers. They’ve got the own brand to help them be competitive and win business locally. And then, of course, they’re delivering the brands on top of that, because every wholesaler would probably stock three options for their customers, good, better and best, within whatever categories they offer. That works really well alongside our own brand. That’s another point of difference, and something we’ll be looking to expand.
What is your own brand called?
We’re only 10 weeks into this. At Confex, we had our own brand called CORE, Fairway had their own brand called Fairway. We are looking to come together to have one own brand, we haven’t got a name for it yet. We’ve got two boards, a retail board and a foodservice board. The foodservice board will get together to decide the name of the combined own brand. But bizarrely, it’s not actually something that needed to happen when we started on January 1st, because we had two own brands, we had loads of packaging that needed to run down. It wasn’t an immediate priority, but in the next month or so, we should have a name and a brand. That’s to look forward to. If you combine those two existing volumes together, it’s a £25 million own brand focused on foodservice, and with over 40 years’ experience of own brands. It probably is the largest, I would imagine, foodservice own brand in independent wholesale in the UK.
Will the own brand cover both food service and retail?
It doesn’t currently. We’ve got 400 SKUs at the moment in that own brand range, I would say 80 would be applicable to retail. A roll of cling film is the same in retail and foodservice. There are products that are being sold currently in retail outlets like chips, etc, but we haven’t got a full own brand range. We don’t have price marked or anything like that yet, so that would be something for the future, but not currently. It is food service focused, but 80 of the 400 products could and are being sold in retail outlets.
Where have you worked before and in what roles?
I have been at Confex for 15 years and worked my way up from a buyer. Confex as a wholesale group started in 1972 and was really about confectionery. That’s why it’s called Confex. And then we grew into soft drinks. I was brought in 15 years ago to focus and grow foodservice, and that’s been a big growth area for us, foodservice has grown within wholesale, and we’ve extended from there, but we still have a massive retail base. If you look at that group turnover of £4.51 billion, it divides into £3 billion worth of foodservice and £1.51 billion of retail.
I became the MD of Confex four years ago. Now I am the joint MD with Jess Douglas of The Wholesale Group. We have doubled since Covid, and then we’ve doubled again by coming together with Fairway. We felt it was time for a new name, a new beginning, and time to grow and really represent independent wholesale.
What does your current role involve?
I’m joint MD with Jess. Jess heads up a lot of our events and marketing, I’m the commercial arm of our role, I’m very much involved with the suppliers, with the commercial aspects, the terms, pricing and promotions, which is the core function of any buying group. There are lots of other functions, such as marketing, we have a full marketing suite for our members. We provide all the support they require in their businesses, because a buying group is able to provide those extra functions that our members could not provide on their own.
What are your goals for what you want to achieve in the role?
We would like to get to £5 billion turnover as a group. We want to grow our own brand. We’ve got 400 products in the own brand range at the moment, with a £25 million turnover. The aim is to extend the own brand into retail and to extend the range, which will help us grow to £100 million. The growth in the UK economy, is own brand, foodservice and food to go, which is our real sweet spot as a group. Food to go is where we’re pitching other groups and moving into education, into contract catering. Our focus is certainly where the market is growing, which is food to go, coffee shops, sandwich shops and fast-food outlets. Soft drinks is our largest category, which spans foodservice and retail, so it works quite well.
The aim is to grow the own brand, grow the group turnover and see where we go. We’re not aiming to become the biggest, we’re not trying to be Unitas. We’re just trying to represent those independent family businesses and listen to them and our suppliers and help our suppliers to grow within that market. At Confex, we have seen huge growth since Covid and I’m sure that will continue with The Wholesale Group.
How has the wholesale industry changed in recent years?
It’s consolidating. Post-Covid, all the suppliers looked at their supply chains and were forced to economise because of the restrictions placed on workers in factories during Covid, it was harder. A lot of their ranges decreased because of that. It all went back to core range and what they could produce and what they could get out. I think since then, the heads of those big brand FMCG businesses have decided they don’t have to be everything to all men, they just have to be efficient at delivering their core business and making sure that it’s on shelf when people want it. The wholesaler is in the middle of the manufacturer and the shelf. Therefore, there has been supply chain efficiencies driven because of those findings from Covid. There will be further consolidation. Suppliers are wanting to maximise their efficiencies, partly because they have their green agendas and their net zero targets. It is about delivering in trucks. Because we’re the group with the most wholesalers and some of the smaller wholesalers, we’ve had that issue. This isn’t a new issue, we’ve had this issue for 15 years, it’s why we invented central distribution. It’s why Mars came to us and said, can you help us with these small drops that we’re making? We have solutions for that, we work with our suppliers, we’ve been doing it for 15 years to maximise their supply chain efficiencies and pass on those savings where applicable to our members, so they can remain competitive. They can also remain in contact through the group to the suppliers and the brands.
We’re getting the brand messages out to every nook and cranny, every UK post code. Whatever the route to market where that product comes from, whether it be via central distribution, or via a larger member who’s having the truck and then passing on the pallets to the member, it’s keeping that connection for the supplier and the brand but also recognising that the market is consolidating.
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