Darren Labbett has been at Woods Foodservice all his working life, since the age of 16. He eventually took over the business from his parents, after gaining experience in operations.
He has now served long enough to see all three of his children work in the business, paving the way for the future.
Darren Labbett, CEO, Woods Foodservice, tells Wholesale Manager his goals for the business and about the biggest challenges he has faced as a wholesaler.
Can you tell us a little of the history of your company?
I have been managing Woods Foodservice since 2000. Back then there was no direction in the remit of customer we serviced. We were trying to be everything for everyone, which quickly became clear would not be our route to success.
I spent my first five years changing our direction and focusing the business on supplying fine dining restaurants, event caterers and the emerging gastropub trend. During the past 25 years we have moved the business three times to gain additional warehouse space, and we now are based in two units in Uxbridge.
What made you want to get into wholesaling?
I have been working in Woods, a family-run business, since I was 16. By the age of 28, I had spent several years in operations so by the time I turned 30, I was ready to take over the business from my parents who were pursuing interests in property.
I can see history repeating itself as now, all three of my children work at Woods in various departments, and they are enjoying being able to contribute to Woods’ 43-year history.
What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced as a wholesaler?
Without a doubt, navigating our way out of the Covid-19 pandemic was a huge challenge. When the pandemic hit, we lost 90% of our business, and when the hospitality sector was able to reopen its doors again, having to provide for such rapid growth (more than 1000%) was almost impossible. Within the space of two weeks, we drafted in more than 100 members of staff and we had to restructure the business numerous times in order to keep up with the increase in demand. It is only really in the past six months that we feel we have recovered from this operationally.
What are your goals for what you want to achieve with the business?
From the very beginning, my goal has always remained the same: to be the very best at what we do.
How is your company performing?
The company continues to grow despite the difficult economic circumstances. We anticipate a turnover of nearly £40m this financial year. With our focus on delivering exceptional service levels to the customer and aiming for perfection each day, we are always improving and continuously looking for ways we can make small gains.
Are you a member of a buying group? What benefits do you get from being a member?
We recently joined Caterforce as the buying group’s tenth wholesale member and we are already reaping the benefits. For us, these are not just financial benefits based on shared volume but come in other forms too, not least members’ shared understanding and their laser focus on foodservice excellence.
It is obvious when we joined that the Caterforce membership is a community that supports each other and provides invaluable communication with other members who share similar experiences in business, and this is something we value highly.
How far is the geographical reach of your business?
Originally, we focussed on London and the south east, but following the pandemic we have added Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol to our delivery areas.
Do you have an e-commerce site for your customers?
We do – we invested heavily into renovating our online ordering, and now, we have an extremely successful ordering site for our customers. In fact, almost 50% of our orders are placed via our e-commerce platform, which means our customers have easy access to see all of our products, even tableware, at any time.
How digital is your business, and do you offer any IT support for your members e.g. ordering apps, online support, delivery tracking?
At Woods, we have always been ahead of the curve when it comes to welcoming digital enhancements in order to drive forward our service to customers. We are nearly completely automated in sales order processing, which has reduced input errors significantly. This key development means that our customer service advisors can now focus their attention on supporting customers by providing solutions and offering insight, expertise and advice over the phone and via our bespoke app.
How many products does your business supply and what categories do you cover?
We are well on our way to becoming a one-stop shop for our customer base with more than 2,500 ambient, chilled and frozen lines plus approximately the same in fresh produce. We only added fresh produce to our range during the Covid-19 pandemic, and this now represents around 10% of our total turnover.
To ensure we’re offering everything our customers need, we have partnered with specialist HG Walter in the past few months to offer a fresh meat range.
Are there any new products in the ranges you want to talk about?
One of the best performers in our range has been Edesia Fine Food. We introduced the range 18 months ago, and it has been a huge success. Offering premium Mediterranean fine foods, the brand has enabled us to bring together a substantial category under one unified brand, consolidating supply with top quality ingredients.
In September, we are delighted to be launching our own brand at Woods, Spence. This will provide our customers with almost 100 quality kitchen staples at a very competitive price which we believe will be invaluable in this current economic climate.
How has the wholesale industry changed in recent years?
I would say that the biggest shift in the wholesale sector has been the reduction in numbers of independent family-run wholesale businesses. In the past decade, we have seen countless businesses either struggle to survive the impact of Covid-19 or be bought out by larger companies.
Since 2020, we have seen the sector experience significant change and those wholesalers that have not invested in their digital offering have not survived. Staying up to date digitally is something we focus on heavily at Woods to ensure we continue to grow in a sustainable way and can provide exactly what our customers need in the way they need it most.
Comments are closed.