Independent convenience chain Margiotta Food & Wine has set up its own supply depot to help support internal growth and negotiate better terms with suppliers.
The chain’s director, Joe Margiotta, told RN the company had taken over an 87,000sq ft storage facility earlier this year to support growth for its estate across Edinburgh. It currently has 10 shops across the city, but it is to expand to 12 by the end of September.
Margiotta said: “We used to have a cellar where we held stock for the stores, and then we increased it to a 1,500sq ft space before moving into our current space. This larger warehouse has docking sites for vehicles. We’re growing the business, so we wanted to make the wholesale side more professional and have more capacity to deliver stock to more of our stores.”
He did not rule out using the depot as a tool to begin wholesaling to other retailers when asked by RN. Margiotta responded: “It isn’t something for the short-to-medium-term because there are a whole host of other functions we need to add before we look at expanding it outside of our own business in the future.”
The company has also notably joined up with wholesale buying group Sugro as a member as part of the move into the new warehouse. Explaining how this would support growth, Margiotta told RN: “It gives us access to bigger suppliers, and we can negotiate better deals and promotional terms with them.
“Suppliers are often used to dealing with bigger outfits. There are brands such as Ritter and Nestlé who we’re familiar with, but don’t have direct accounts with. The partnership with Sugro can help us speak to these suppliers more directly. It will also enable us to get different lines from them which rival supermarkets nearby don’t already stock. It helps provide us with a potential point of difference.”
The Sugro membership means Margiotta Food & Wine joins a growing number of retailers who are establishing their own wholesale ventures, such as Nisa retailers Peter Sykes and Amrit Singh Pahal.
Commenting on the addition of the two new stores in Edinburgh city centre, Margiotta said one would be heavily focused on food to go through a “food hall”, which could be extended to the other new site depending on performance.
The firm also began a wholesale relationship with Waitrose in 2021, making it the only independent retailer in the UK to stock the premium supermarket’s own label. Margiotta said: “The deal has been going very well and Waitrose is very receptive. It helps us differentiate even further.”
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