Costcutter parent company Bestway Wholesale restructures business

Forging a new future – Bestway Wholesale restructures its business

Further to its acquisition of CSG (Customer Supermarkets Group) in late 2020, Bestway Wholesale has announced a restructure of its senior management team as it looks to integrate talent and resource and emerge as dynamic home for retailers in the UK.

The restructure also supports the wholesale giant’s vision to bring Bestway Wholesale and Bestway Retail together, enabling the organisation to harness its growing scale and talent as it forges a new future and builds further growth and retailer value.

Bestway Wholesale’s Managing Director, Dawood Pervez said“We have extraordinary talent within our business and the time is right to make changes as an important step in delivering future growth and ensuring we continue to meet the needs of our customers as behaviours change and opportunities grow.

“We are now bringing together our Off Licence led business in Crewe (including our Bargain Booze and Wine Rack Brands) and Convenience-led business in York (including our Costcutter and sub- brands Mace, Kwiksave, Simply Fresh, Supershop brands) and Best-one convenience, as one team within Bestway Retail.

“Importantly, we will continue to operate out of both sites, which will each become a centre of excellence for Off-Licence and Convenience respectfully. Our new structure will optimise our ways of working within the Bestway teams, with our customers and our supplier partners.

“The approach that we have taken blends centrally managed services with localised, specialist expertise aligned to our key locations in the UK.  Additional services that will be managed centrally include procurement, fleet and insurance services, legal and financial controllership.

Retail team

Mike Hollis, formerly Retail Director of CSG, has been appointed as Bestway Retail Director.  Reporting to Dawood Pervez and based out of York, Mike will lead a new Retail division focused on helping independent retailers to grow their food and drinks business. His leadership team is confirmed as Paul Adams (Head of Symbol Fascia, Duncan Jelfs (Head of Franchise), Clive Binks (Head of Corporate Stores), Frankie Haynes (Head of Central Operations), Jamie Davison (Head of Store Recruitment and Development)

The company has also confirmed that its Buying and Marketing teams will now be managed centrally for all Cash & Carry, Convenience, Off License, Catering, Pet Specialist and Export customers under the leadership of Kenton Burchell who will take up a new role as Group Trading Director.

Restructure

Bestway has confirmed that the above restructure will take effect over the coming weeks, and will continue to be overseen by Naser Khan, COO of Bestway Wholesale and Bestway Retail, who currently heads up the integration of the businesses.

Established in 1976, Bestway Wholesale has grown to become the UK’s largest independent food and drink wholesaler. It is part of the industrial giant Bestway Group which also has global business interests in Banking, Cement, Pharmacy, Milling and Property Investment.

The wholesale division has 61 Bestway and Batleys depots spanning the length and breadth of the UK. It is a supply partner to over 47,000 independent retailers. With a UK turnover of £2.5bn and a comprehensive logistical infrastructure, the company has the scale, purchasing power and expertise to help our customers compete in an ever-changing food and drink sector.

In addition to supplying thousands of convenience stores and small shops, Bestway Wholesale also operates the award-winning best-one symbol group which has 1,761 members throughout the country. Over 4,000 independents have chosen our depot-run promotional club, Xtra Local, as their retail club of choice.