TWC Group

Merry Christmas from TWC 🎄 2024 has been an incredible year for TWC, culminating in us being awarded The Best Service Provider of the year at last month’s FWD Gold Medal awards, voted on by wholesalers. This success would not have been possible without the loyalty of our clients, the support of the industry and the dedication of our staff – we have a really close knit team dedicated to deliver against the needs of all of our customers.   We have lots of really exciting new products getting ready to launch in 2025….but more of that in January. #MerryChristmas #Wholsale #Convenience #Research

I have attended lots of hospitality industry events in recent months (Arena the hospitality networking association, Simon Stenning, Chris Sheppardson, Entrepreneur's Partnership, Caterforce Ltd conference) and there is a consistent message of needing to work hard in 2025 to find growth opportunities. But what if many of the growth opportunities are sat right in front of our eyes (or counters, tables, bars)? I dine out a lot and for months I've sat 'in premise' thinking 'if a member of staff was to ask me if I wanted another glass of wine, or something to go with my coffee, or have a mini starter of olives/bread & oil to nibble on while reading the menus' I'd probably have said 'yes'. This got me and Mark Bentley talking last week - am I expecting too much, or do others feel the same as me? So we at TWC Group polled the nation last week and spoke to 752 UK adult consumers (natrep) to find out whether they experience the same when dining out - ie they end up spending less than they were going to, willing to or intending to, not because the outlet was cheaper than expected, but because the service was too slow or for other operational reasons. The answer? Almost 35% of consumers who dine out (which is 87% of the UK population, by the way) say they have spent less than intended on some of their recent meals out. This post is not aimed to be critical - it is aimed to trigger debate about 'customer spend optimisation per visit' (CSOV). We should recognise and applaud those outlets which really succeed in delivering the highest CSOV - those operators which enable customers to spend what they were going to spend (and some). The photo is of a TWC Christmas lunch last week at The Humble Grape (Fleet St). The team working that day were terrific - always enquiring whether we needed or wanted anything else. Talking to my good friend (and ex colleague) Blake Chapman on Monday, he highlighted a local pub to him which appears to have someone working there whose primary role is to walk around each table and ask guests if they'd like another drink/snack/coffee etc. Hope this post provides food for thought.....we will be launching a full research insights programme for 2025 in January. Contact us for more information as we attempt to report 'the what and the why' (what happened and why it happened). #research #insight #wholesale #foodservice Tanya Pepin Richard Barr Sarah Coleman Jayne Webb Kelly Pye Elaine Baker Olly Brown PS Andy Dixon and I met yesterday to scope out a review of the foodservice sector 2024/25 (we'll share it with you in the New Year).

Join our Founder and MD, Tanya Pepin, at next month's ‘Destination 2026’ conference 📆 This is a must-attend event for wholesale and is back for its second year with a theme of ‘Leading For Good’, which promises to inspire and challenge us to think about the future of the wholesale industry and our role in shaping it. Tanya will be presenting on CPG change dynamics and key trends. Buy your tickets here for a day of hearing from industry experts: https://lnkd.in/eHEAUKXd Clare Bocking Amy Searle #Wholesale #Convenience #Trends

Client Testimonial 🌟 We have been working with Ireland's largest wholesale business, Musgrave, over the past year on a number of research projects. At TWC, we design and deliver bespoke research projects for you, to confirm your hypotheses about what is driving performance and to identify future trends and opportunities, to drive growth. Read what Consumer Insights Manager, Sheehan Louise, had to say about our work 👇 Find out more on our website: https://lnkd.in/eGT_YXhc #Research #Insights #Wholesale

Team TWC Christmas Lunch 🎄 What a fantastic day we had at our team lunch in London. It’s been an incredible year of collaboration, hard work and growth, and our team lunch was the perfect opportunity to get into the festive spirit, unwind and celebrate our successes. Until the next one! Tanya Pepin, Tom Fender, Sarah Coleman, Richard Barr, Jayne Webb, Kelly Pye, Chloe Bradford, Olly Brown, Vicky Davies, Matt Chick. Becky Thomas, Elaine Baker, Alexandra Hayley Foster & Nicola you were missed - but hope your nativity plays etc were enjoyable. And there’s next week’s lunch too! #Team #Wholesale #FoodService #Conveneince #Data

An Evening with The Country Range Group 🌟 Our Managing Director, Tanya Pepin, attended this fantastic event last night. Hosted by Rob Brydon, it was an opportunity for the group to celebrate the achievements of their members and suppliers. Congratulations to Premier Foods for winning Best Data and Insight, and to all other winners. A big thank you to Martin Ward and the whole team at CRG. #FoodService #Wholesale #ShopperInsights #Awards

The issue of PMPs has cropped up again in wholesale (retail) - three different meetings with three organisations in the last 10 days. I ran the consumer and retailer research in circa 2007 (I presented it at an IGD conference) which opened the floodgates to PMPs in our channel - it was when the global financial crisis hit and consumer confidence was badly dented (as was their spending power). There are similar market conditions going on now. I'd urge you to ask yourself a question. If a shopper goes into a local c-store and sees a product PMP'd at £1.19, or £1.29 (same product) which one is going to have the greatest uplift in sales? (And do you have data to prove this?) But make sure you are asking the right questions...and that you're using research and data to help make a decision, not justify a decision. TWC Group has data. But we also run research projects (consumer, shopper, retailer/business owner). This gives us an unparalleled ability to tell our customers THE WHAT and THE WHY - what has happened, and why it has happened. Quant data + quant/qual research insights could be very useful in 2025 as we clearly head towards choppy waters. #ListenToShoppers #ListenToRetailers #TrustTheData Johanna Thomson Helen Lyons David Shrimpton Aidan Fortune Parin Gohil Louise Banham C-Store Collective Jayne Webb Matt Stanton Sarah Coleman Tanya Pepin Richard Barr Kelly Pye Elaine Baker Amy Searle Victoria Lockie

Happy work anniversary to our very own Kelly Pye , pictured here (left) stood next to Sarah Coleman. Thank you for your dedication and hard work, not to mention your terrific first hand knowledge of wholesaling. The TWC Group team hope you have a lovely day. Thank you for everything.

Yesterday was a B-I-G D-A-Y for TWC! At lunchtime, we hosted our second 'Round Table' debate of the year on the subject of data collaboration in the UK grocery wholesale. We are all still catching our breath from the contribution made by Edwina Dunn OBE (co founder of Dunnhumby). 'Inspirational' is probably an over used term on social media but we think we can speak on behalf of all attendees - Edwina was jaw droppingly brilliant: calm, measured, insightful, eloquent, personal and kept the conversation at 'human' speak level. Her 20 minute talk became a full 90 minute Q&A 'masterclass'. We can not thank Edwina enough. A summary of yesterday's 'Round Table' discussion is being produced. But we are delighted to announce that the group has unanimously decided the time has arrived for the sector to finally change its position on data - we need to change the status quo. An announcement will be made in due course. A huge thank you to Mark Aylwin for chairing the Round Table for the second time. Last night was the annual The Federation of Wholesale Distributors 'Gold Medal' awards. We were stunned (but beyond 'over the moon') to win the Best Service Provider award. Winning any award is brilliant....but winning an award judged by wholesalers is 'La Creme de la Creme'. TWC Group ONLY works in the wholesale sector and our Strategic Vision is 'Driving Growth Through Wholesale Via Data' - we want ALL wholesalers to thrive. Therefore to be recognised by the wholesale industry is incredibly pleasing. We obviously want to thank our clients for their ongoing support. But allow us also to name and publicly thank our incredible team who work so tirelessly to continually deliver great service: Tanya Pepin Tom Fender Richard Barr Jayne Webb Sarah Coleman Kelly Pye Elaine Baker Olly Brown Chloe Bradford Becky Thomas Vicky Davies Alexandra Hayley Foster Have a great weekend everyone - a huge thank you to you all. Round Table Delegates: Emma Senior Emma King Katharine Challinor Matthew Gouldsmith Lotte Tregear Gail Bridgeman Katrina Crabtree Ruth Fawcett Fazeela R. Jayne Webb Tom Gittins Simon Gray Adam Collett David Visick Richard Cook Ben Cooper

TWC Group is delighted to announce that Congo Brands is the latest supplier to sign up to SmartView Convenience (SVC). In partnership with influential creators and entrepreneurs, Congo Brands has created some of the most cutting-edge consumer packaged goods brands on the market including PRIME and Alani Nutrition. SmartView Convenience is a data source focussed on the independent convenience sector, covering unaffiliated independents and wholesaler-supplier symbol stores. It comprises EPOS data from a sample of 5,000 carefully selected stores (geographically and by wholesaler fascia group) in a groundbreaking partnership between TWC Group and In Touch Group. Unitas, Booker and almost a dozen suppliers now all use SVC to support their ranging and planograms for independent retailers in GB. Sarah Coleman, Product Director at TWC Group, said: “We are thrilled that Congo Brands has selected TWC Group’s SmartView Convenience market read – this is further testament that SVC is becoming the authority on data for the independent and symbols channel.”