Head office team of The Wholesale Group announced

The head office team of The Wholesale Group has been announced (see image above). In addition, Cash & Carry Management can confirm that all members of Confex and Fairway Foodservice have agreed to be part of the new group.

The head office will be at Confex’s current premises at the Cotswold Business Centre, Upper Rissington, Gloucestershire, with a hub and development kitchen in Huddersfield – Fairway Foodservice’s existing location.

The group will be led by joint managing directors Tom Gittins and Jess Douglas, with Martin Williams and Coral Rose as co-chairs. To date, it has not been confirmed if the chair positions are non-executive roles.

The retail buying team will be headed up by retail controller Kirsty Winkel, while the foodservice buying team will be led by foodservice trading director Troy McKee. Tabitha Hunter-Smale and Kish Ramasamy will both be sales development managers, and marketing strategist Toby Jordan will head up the marketing department.

A decision on whether to retain the own brands from both Confex and Fairway has yet to be made, said Douglas: “The Wholesale Group will be led on own brand by a foodservice board which will make these decisions. This hasn’t yet been decided, and if and when packaging needs to be run down, this will take time. As soon as things have been decided, we will communicate and share plans wider.”

Described as ‘the buying group for the future’ by its leadership team, The Wholesale Group will officially launch on 1 January 2025 as the home of the independent wholesaler.

The senior executives of the organisation would not be drawn on whether the expansion of Caterfood Buying Group had any bearing on the decision to form The Wholesale Group. However, Gittins said: “The Wholesale Group has been formed to champion independent wholesale and to service our member and supplier needs in an evolving wholesale market.

“The group is the largest delivered wholesale group, the largest foodservice buying group and the second largest retail buying group offering a home for all wholesalers, regardless of size. We offer no membership fees and a share of the profits for every member. We remain focused on service and driven by data and technology.”