The Wholesale Group is trading “ahead of the market” just nine months since its formation as it edges closer towards its goal of a combined membership turnover of over £5bn.
The buying group, which was formed in January by merging Confex and Fairway Foodservice, has experienced a 6.5% rise in group growth year-to-date, while average member spend is up 14.5%.
The Wholesale Group now represents 14% of the wholesale market, with 225 active members and 398 active suppliers.
While the group plans to achieve this £5bn figure by 2027, the ambition was “way too conservative”, TWG retail MD Tom Gittins told The Grocer.
The group currently has a buying power worth more than £4.42bn and a membership that is going from “strength to strength”.
“What’s key is that members and suppliers have responded. We’re growing ahead of the market, it’s working and people are seeing the value,” Gittins explained.
But to achieve this, in its retail segment, the group will continue to collaborate with suppliers to drive spend, expand its alcohol offer and is to launch a limited range high-volume, private label offer.
In foodservice, the buying group will continue to grow spend through brand and own brand, driving existing member spend.
In May, TWG launched its own label foodservice brand, Chef Assured. It includes around 350 products across ambient, chilled, and frozen categories and the group has “50 more in the pipeline already”, said foodservice MD Coral Rose.
“Member uptake has grown from 68 members buying into the brand to 103 as they use the range to differentiate themselves, offering products that can’t be directly price matched in this competitive marketplace,” she added. “It is critical that we give them that offering.”
The positive trading follows the recent appointment of former Unitas Wholesale chair, Mark Alwyn, as the TWG’s non-exec chairman.
Alwyn said the reason he was attracted to TWG was its ability to “punch above its weight” in both retail and foodservice.
“It’s come on massively. I think if you looked at the two businesses [Confex and Fairway] 12 months ago, we wouldn’t be spoken about in the industry in the way that we are now. My favourite quote about mergers is that 75% fail to achieve the business plan. This group is beating the business plan,” he added.
No comments yet