Talking Retail Grocery and product news for independent retailers
Brakes Group chief executive Hugo Mahoney, Bestway Wholesale managing director Dawood Pervez, Country Range Group managing director Coral Rose, Bidfood UK chief executive Andrew Selley, and Unitas Wholesale managing director Darren Goldney make the call in a joint letter published in The Times (20 June).
The letter highlights the important role wholesalers play in the community, critical to the supply of food to schools, care homes, and hospitals.
The letter says: “Yet we have been left out in the cold during the Covid-19 pandemic as the only part of the food supply chain that has not received specific support from the government.”
It adds: “The government must extend business rates relief to food and drink wholesalers and stop putting the provision of food and drink to our children, vulnerable people and key workers at risk.”
The letter comes as a survey commissioned by Defra indicates that 50% of businesses in the food and drink wholesale sector are on the brink of collapse.
