On the occasion of Her Majesty’s 96th birthday, Wanis International Foods received a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade.
A family business founded nearly six decades ago, when Queen Elizabeth was in her mid-thirties, Wanis was recognised for five years of uninterrupted growth and commended for its commitment to equality and diversity.
To celebrate, the company’s Export Team was joined by H.E. Anthony B. Severin and Angela St. Denis of the Saint Lucian High Commission, discussing with them opportunities to increase trade with Saint Lucia in the hope of earning Wanis another Queen’s Award next year.
Wanis Commercial Director George Phillips tells Wholesale Manager how it feels to have won the award.
Congratulations on winning the Queen’s Award for Enterprise. How do you feel to have won?
Absolutely delighted! Much has been said about the challenges facing exporters post-Brexit, and it is a testament to the Wanis team as well as to our customers that we have not only been able to record 5 years of continuous export growth, a key deliverable for the award, but also maintain that trajectory through 2020-1 and into 2022. Winning recognises the work that not just our Export team, who have been at the forefront of this, but the entire team at Wanis who have supported them, to get us to a place where we can win such a prestigious award.
Why do you think you won the award?
The criteria were quite broad, so apart from demonstrating continuous growth in exports over the past 5 years, other factors taken into account by the judges were overall business performance, diversity in our people (we count people from some 25 different races and creeds in our team of around 155), CSR (such as supporting charities, foodbanks, local authority projects) and feedback from employees, customers and suppliers. We actually had an independent survey commissioned on these points to back our entry. I firmly believe it was all of these factors that contributed to our win.
What charitable work does Wanis do?
A lot! CSR is a priority for our business and engagement with the communities we serve is something we take incredibly seriously, not least because the environment we are in means people need help and support more than ever before. We work across a broad spectrum of charities, community groups, education and social projects.
Tell us about the history of the company – when it started and how it grew into what it is today.
We were founded in 1964, proudly taking the name of our founder, Tulsidas Wadhwani (known to all as “Mr Wani”) and trading from a small retail outlet in East London. It was the time of new immigrants arriving in the UK (among them the Windrush generation) and Wanis supplied these people with many of the products from home that were almost impossible to find in the UK at that time. Over the years our business grew as did wider demand for World Foods, and we relocated no fewer than 4 times into ever-larger premises, culminating with the move to our current Head Office location in East London in 2015. Fast forward to today and we remain a family business, operating from 3 sites and with revenues in excess of £100m. In April of 2022 our brand-new, purpose-built Distribution Centre opened in Rainham, Essex, which together with our Cash & Carry and Head Office and a warehouse in Milton Keynes, forms the basis of Wanis’ operations today. We area true World Food business with some 10,000 products drawn from brands across the Caribbean, West Africa, Mediterranean, South East Asia and the USA, and are proud to represent more than 40 of these brands as their sole importer and distributor in the UK. We supply all UK trade sectors and in addition export to more than 35 markets across the globe.
How many different product lines do you stock and are there any particular categories that you specialise in?
With more than 10,000 lines stocked across the business we are something of a one-stop shop for all things World Food. In terms of cuisines, we specialise in West African, Caribbean and Mediterranean and we are a leading supplier of brands from these regions to Independent/Convenience retails (both directly via our own C&C or our delivered sales team, and also increasingly via other Wholesalers and Cash & Carry operators), multiple retailers and, also increasingly, online. In terms of product categories, our traditional focus and area of strength has been World Food commodities such as rice, powders and flours and beans and pulses, spices and seasonings and canned goods. More recently we have seen significant growth in ‘alternative’ soft drinks (the Tropical Vibes brand of exotic juice drinks and American-style lemonades being a good example) and Vegan/Free-From and both of these are becoming significant growth categories for Wanis.
Which product categories that you supply are in growth and which are more challenging?
While the commodity categories remain resilient by their very nature, we are seeing consumer trends move to smaller pack sizes offering lower price points, and more frequent purchase and so a reduction in larger bulk pack sizes, both driven by the increasing cost of living and consumers looking to spread their expenditure. The challenges therefore are less about category decline and more about adapting to consumer trends and purchasing patterns. In saying that, an example of a challenging category would be edible oils, where recent events have both affected supply and pricing and this has proved a challenge to navigate at a time when consumers are less able to afford rapidly rising prices.
As previously noted, we are seeing strong growth in soft drinks and Vegan/Free-From. Soft drinks are particularly interesting given the size and competitive nature of the category, making dramatic growth harder to achieve. Perhaps our best example of how innovation can deliver results in even the most hard-fought category is the Tropical Vibes brand. Launched for the 2019 season, the brand achieved retail sales of no less than £11.5m in 2021 and that trajectory continues in 2022. We see several contributory factors to this success: Innovation in product and packaging means exotic flavours and a point of difference to more conventional, packed in a 300ml glass bottle which has the added advantage of fully recyclable packaging and no plastics. These together with a consumer RRP of £1.00, allied to very competitive trade margins with good promotional support make for a strong package. I must also add that the support from our Wholesale partners for Tropical Vibes has been magnificent and a major contributor to the brand’s success.
Vegan and Free-From is still relatively small and lead by the multiples given the more mainstream consumer base, but we are seeing this filter increasingly into smaller retailers and so Wholesalers. While we are seeing strong growth for products such as Tropical Sun Jackfruit and Banana Blossom (a plant-based fish alternative), this is perhaps a ‘slower burn, longer term’ opportunity for the wider retail and wholesale trade, but given increasing concerns over environment and sustainability and the impact of those on consumer diet, this is a category we cannot ignore and offer long-term growth potential.
What promotional offers do you run?
Again using Tropical Vibes as an example of a brand built in Wholesale, these include display, retailer and depot incentives, PLOF’s and brochures, merchandising and sampling at point of sale (using our own merchandisers) and price promotions to offer retailers enhanced margins and increased reason to purchase. Using the old adage that retailers are shoppers too in a Wholesale environment, visibility and reason to purchase are key, as is the fact that many Wholesalers have limited promotional space and therefore the brand must justify its inclusion.
On our wider range across products such as rice, coconut milk, canned milks and similar products we employ price mark packs extensively. This is not a new mechanic but with the squeeze on consumer spending, it is becoming key for many staple products in reassuring consumers they are getting value, and we are actively increasing the amount and range of price mark packs we supply to Wholesalers.
How has the wholesale industry changed in recent years?
From our perspective, we have seen a greater recognition of World Food (and drink) by many Wholesalers. Individual products may have been stocked previously and there are specialist World Food wholesalers who have built strong businesses, but it is the recognition of World Foods as a category that offers growth in the wider trade which is changing. Clearly there is a focus on core products – Wanis is unique in that we are a World Food business, so our C&C reflects this in breadth and depth of range stocked, but other Wholesalers have more mainstream categories driving their business – BWS, Soft Drinks, Snacks, confectionary for example – so growing World Foods is all about core range focus to keep it manageable.
Bigger picture, we continue to see consolidation among the national groups with fewer, larger businesses growing their presence and market share – BBG, Dhamecha and Parfett’s would be good examples. Perhaps similar in many ways to what we have seen in multiple retail. Some may not see this is beneficial, but in our category we do, as there remains a strong presence among regional and specialist wholesalers while the larger national groups bring suppliers such as Wanis opportunites for national distribution that we cannot achieve ourselves.
How digital is Wanis as a business, and do you offer any IT support for your members e.g. ordering apps, online support, delivery tracking?
The very breadth of our range makes online ordering a challenge, the more so as the range is constantly evolving. We therefore offer app-based online ordering for customers across a number of our key brands rather than our entire product range together with an online interactive brochure. Following the opening of our new DC we now provide live order tracking for customers allowing them to view from placement of order its status of picking, despatch and delivery together with any variations to that order due to availability. Customers receive a delivery note automatically prior to delivery to enable them to check orders on arrival with the minimum of delay.
What new products have you introduced recently?
Our most recent launches are both drinks. Moji Ice T! is a new range of juice-based ice tea drinks aimed at young adults and a segment in the soft drinks market that has significant potential (so called “cold brews”). Moji Ice T! is aimed at a younger adult consumer than has been the case previously, available in 5 flavours at a competitive £1.00 RRP and aims to bring ice tea drinks to a broader consumer base, not unlike in concept to What Tropical Vibes has achieved in a similar consumer segment. The brand is rolling out in wholesalers as we speak with very positive initial feedback.
Rude Boy is a brand-new range of alcoholic Tonic Wines launching into a sub-category that has seen extraordinary growth in the past 2-3 years. A unique blend of 4 botanical extracts including Ginseng and Guarana with caffeine and an ABV of 15%, Rude Boy is launching in 3 unique flavours with a £3.49 RRP, and has already become something of a sensation across the Caribbean where the brand hails from. We are especially proud to have been appointed their exclusive UK distributor by Rude Boy Beverages and the brand launches into wholesale this month. Watch this space!
What are your plans to expand the company in the future?
‘Ambitious’ is probably the best summary! Commissioning the new DC earlier this year was a very significant investment by Wanis in our future and underlines both our confidence in the World Food and Drink market and our ability to drive growth with our brands. As can be seen from the above, drinks will play their part with more innovative launches in the pipeline and with consumers broadening their repertoire at home, we see continued potential for growth in our grocery business. World Food is an exciting and fast-paced category and we see great potential not just for Wanis but for our customers too. The journey continues!
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