The Scottish Wholesale Association (SWA) has revealed that Scotland’s wholesalers are outperforming those in England and Wales, based on data from 75 wholesalers across Great Britain.

Data commissioned by the SWA, assessing how Scotland’s wholesale trade is faring versus the UK, has confirmed that Scotland is over performing in wholesaler-supplied convenience retail, though growth is flatter in retail than foodservice, which is more robust.

Tanya Pepin, managing director of TWC, said: “Foodservice is currently showing strong growth while wholesale into retail is flatter. In both channels, Scotland is over-indexing on value growth.”

Scotland also boasted the largest regional share of convenience retail value sales of all GB geographies and the best year-on-year results of all regions for for value growth across impulse categories for seven of 10 core retail categories. .

Pepin continued: “Finally, there is good news for Scottish wholesale-supplied symbols/fascias. Despite them having a lower share of stores numerically than England and Wales, they outperform on share of retail units sold, and Scottish symbols and fascias have more items in their baskets than their English and Welsh counterparts.”

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Results also included card spending insight from the HDI Panel which tracks the day-by-day spending of 10.2m people across 160,000 hospitality venues and over 40,000 grocery and convenience stores.

SWA chief executive Colin Smith added that levels of confidence among Scottish wholesalers remain “high”.

“This insightful market overview doesn’t mask the fact that businesses are facing significant cost pressures from high employee, materials, and energy costs,” he said.

“However, the findings from TWC and HDI tell us that there is optimism within the Scottish wholesale sector and our performance versus England and Wales is heartening in a market that has witnessed considerable challenges and change over the last five years.

“Clearly, local and regional market dynamics are also at play, but this market review can help wholesalers focus on the key challenges and opportunities for growth at time when there is an evolving regulatory environment.

“That said, Scottish wholesalers recognise the need for strategic investment and growth, and understanding how crucial it is to look to the future.”

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