Regional wholesalers have pledged not to follow Nisa and Booker in charging fees for deliveries.

This month, Nisa retailers will see a £4.88 fuel levy added to each delivery, while Premier and Family Shopper customers will be charged £29.95 per delivery.

This fee will increase to £34.95 for non-symbol retailers.

Both companies blamed the pandemic alongside inflationary pressures for their decisions.

However, rival wholesalers Bestway, Simply Fresh, Parfetts, DeeBee, United Wholesale Grocers and Filshill told bettreRetailing they would not be following, despite facing similar pressures.

Parfetts joint managing director Guy Swindell told bettreRetailing: “Everyone has cost challenges, but we’re conscious retailers have the same issues and it’s up to us to improve our delivered model.

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“We’ll look closer to home to see where we can combat inflation.

“We completed an expansion at our Aintree depot which allows us to load vehicles and get drivers out faster.

“The ambition is to enable vehicles to do a second delivery drop.

“We’ve also invested in new software which enables us to see weight and size of orders to help put more onto cages.”

United Wholesale Grocers managing director Amaan Ramzan added the company would not add any delivery fees to orders in the “near future”.

Swindell and Ramzan said they had seen an increase in enquiries from Nisa and Booker retailers.

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