He told Better Retailing: “When you drill down into the results, it’s down to the new categories our wholesalers are taking on and the demands of the customers. 

“New products such as Coca-Cola Energy and Chocomel have helped drive these sales.”

However, retail expert David Gilroy said the figures do not show a “full picture”. “It’s positive, but you can’t draw any conclusions from it,” he told Better Retailing. 

“Proper half-year results should be laying out turnover, gross revenue, member numbers and average member transaction value. 

“You can’t get a proper picture of how the business is growing.” 

The results come as 20 of Confex’s wholesale members left to form a new buying group called the National Buying Consortium (NBC) in June.

Despite the split, Confex has secured partnerships with 27 new wholesalers since the start of the year, with the most recent being WJ Carlisle.