Country Range Group leaves Unitas Wholesale
Country Range Group is leaving Unitas Wholesale, effective from 1 January 2021.
Darren Goldney, managing director of Unitas, and Coral Rose, managing director of The Country Range Group, issued a joint statement:
“Following a joint review, we have recognised we largely already operate as discrete entities with differing sales and marketing programmes appropriate to the needs of our respective members. Upon evaluating our individual programmes, we have now concluded we are better served continuing to develop our stand-alone activity plans that suit our respective members and give absolute clarity for our supplier partners on the wholesale estates we individually influence.
“Both companies share a passion to work with our members, on ensuring participation and support to the sales and marketing programmes we run, and critically, in a principle to be transparent with our suppliers. We plan to remain very close as two groups and will continue to explore strategic and joint opportunities where appropriate, and where they can deliver value to all parties.”
Goldney added: “Unitas embarked on a journey to simplify and to drive transparency for suppliers on ‘who we are’ and ‘what we will influence’. Critical to this, is working with wholesale members who can be fully ‘in’ and that can participate more closely in programmes to deliver on shared objectives with suppliers. CRG are an excellent operation and a legacy partnership that existed when Unitas Wholesale was formed, with a really strong identity and programmes of their own, so sharing the same programmes and doing the same things in reality is difficult to achieve, when for good reason we are really two separate entities. We have great respect for CRG and their members, and will continue to seek ways we can collaborate for mutual benefit but this does not need to be through a membership relationship which can actually add complexity versus meeting our shared simplification objective.”
Rose said: “Our membership of Unitas was carried forward from Landmark, where we focused on maximising opportunities of scale for the greater benefit of the members of the respective groups. Unitas have established a clear strategy with their members and supplier partners, not purely focused on scale but also to encourage increased participation in central initiatives for mutual benefit. The CRG are a disciplined buying group with an already established schedule of events, marketing and sales initiatives. It is therefore not practical for us to fully engage with the Unitas strategy which in turn prevents them accomplishing their goals. We will continue to pursue opportunities to co-operate with Unitas for the benefit of all which will be easier to progress outside of a membership relationship.”
Tel: Unitas Wholesale (01302) 249909
Tel: Country Range Group (0845) 209 3777
Published Date: September 29, 2020
