Unitas outperforms market in retail and foodservice

Unitas outperformed the market in both retail and foodservice during 2025: in retail it was up by 2.4% versus the market, and in hospitality it was up by 11%.

At the Unitas Supplier Partner Directors’ Luncheon, which attracted more than 110 food and drink suppliers, chief operating officer David Cooke shared the group’s strategic direction for 2026.

David Cooke: ‘Our next chapter is about working together in a way that’s simpler, more scalable and commercially effective.’

With the theme ‘Think Bigger, Win Together’, he said: “Unitas is the UK’s largest buying group, and while scale matters, performance matters even more. This is why we are choosing to focus on what we can genuinely do better together to leverage the scale and power of our group.”

Cooke outlined a raft of new central initiatives planned in partnership with suppliers and members. These include a review of membership categories; product launch partnerships to deliver execution, compliance and transparent return on investment; and a centralised network model built with strategic partners.

He also announced an acceleration of supplier activations in more than 5,000 convenience retail stores across the Unitas membership, and a revamp of both the retail club and Plan for Profit programme.

“Our next chapter is about working together in a way that’s simpler, more scalable and commercially effective,” he said. “In the coming months Unitas will focus on fewer isolated initiatives and more scalable programmes, with measurable return on investment and better execution across members with stronger, more consistent activation. We are building the capabilities to win together across distribution, data and retail acceleration.”

He added: “This isn’t about being the loudest group, but about being the most effective group to partner with.”

Suppliers welcomed Cooke’s message.

Hannah Dixon, wholesale, convenience & out of home sales director at Nestlé, said: “At Nestle, Unitas means scale and is one of our biggest customers in the UK. With that scale comes visibility and ultimately the investment to support our brands within the membership. The big message for me is that Unitas is in listening mode, there are changes coming, and there are nuggets of positivity that we can really leverage by being targeted with our data.”

Ruth Fawcett, associate wholesale director at CCEP, said: “Unitas is one of our biggest customers and we work very collaboratively with them as a business. The beauty of a buying group is that it brings their members together which allows us to really look at a collaborative approach and build really strong partnerships. As a result, we’ve had some real successes with Plan for Profit and how we’ve brought a launch product to market.”