Member Article

Fairway Foodservice’s members increase collective turnover to £715m

Fairway Foodservice’s members have increased their collective turnover past the £700m mark for the year-end 2017.

The foodservice buying group added one new member in the last 12 months, and the majority of members increased sales to support the 10 per cent growth from £650.5m to £715m.

And Fairway’s chief executive Chris Binge believes the members’ focus on customer service, as well as taking a proactive approach to being a part of the buying group, plays a key role in the success.

He said: “Despite difficulty in the market due to food product inflation affecting margins, our members have yet again increased their collective turnover. In fact, all bar one grew their individual turnover.

“The success is down to understanding the needs of customers and delivering the service they require, and this is one of our members’ strengths.

“In addition, our members source local and regional products and harness the collective purchasing by Fairway, maximise promotional activity, and are continuing to introduce technology and data into their operations.

“All in all, it’s a winning formula.”

Chris also believes Fairway’s members benefit from having each other for peer-to-peer discussions.

He added: “Fairway really is a big family. I’ve no doubt the fact that our members share ideas, experiences, and knowledge, as well as visit each other’s premises has contributed to their growth.

“We also encourage them to feed ideas and suggestions into the buying group. We are always striving to improve and understand how we can provide a better service.

“We’re confident that the group will continue to increase sales despite the uncertain economic, political, and social future. Dedication, hard-work, competence, forward thinking, and a strong focus on customers will succeed in any field.

“Our door is always open for quality foodservice-orientated businesses that share our vision to join and help the group become even more successful.”

Fairway Foodservice’s members cover the UK, Ireland, and Spain. Fairway, which was founded in 1984 by five frozen food wholesale distribution companies, holds a meet the member event every six months, which concluded £1.8m worth of deals in 2017.

Alongside access to Fairway Foodservice’s extensive range of products, members benefit from collective buying power on a number of lines, significant marketing support and subscription discounts to the Erudus One product specification database.

For more information on Fairway Foodservice, follow the group on Twitter @fairwayfood or visit www.fairwayfoodservice.com.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sam Harris .