TWC to develop into full service data and research agency

Senior executives from leading cash & carries, delivered wholesalers and suppliers attended TWC Group’s first trade briefing on 30 April.

TWC managing director Tanya Pepin at the company’s first trade briefing.

The high-profile audience included Booker Retail’s managing director Colm Johnson, Parfetts’ joint managing directors Guy Swindell and Noel Robinson, and the heads of several of the major buying groups.

At the event, TWC reiterated its “obsessive focus on driving growth in wholesale through data and insight”.

“No other agency has this single channel focus on wholesale and associated routes to market (RTM),” said a company spokesperson.

“We believe there are more opportunities for growth in wholesale than in the retail mults. We know suppliers share this view: they tell us. But they need the sector to collaborate better on data. Suppliers need to prove a return on investment. This comes from data. If wholesalers don’t share their data, our sector misses out on supplier investment.

“The wholesale sector has made great strides in data usage and collaboration but we still have further to go.”

TWC pointed out that the retail multiples have used data for decades to improve their businesses – for example, Tesco Clubcard is 30 years old. It added that Amazon and the online delivery aggregators (Deliveroo etc) are essentially data businesses. However, AI can only work if good quality base data exists.

TWC released research findings to show that – despite the economic gloom and the intense competition for share of wallet – opportunities for growth exist. “Wholesale (and wholesalers) must play a central pivotal role in sharing these opportunities with their customers. Data must be used to forensically identify and quantify growth opportunities,” said the spokesperson.

TWC will be launching new research products this year. “Data tells us what is happening. Research will complement this by explaining why things happen, or how things happen,” said the spokesperson.

“We are developing into a full service data and research (what and why) agency.”