Sugro UK are delighted to have been voted No. 1 Buying Group in the recent Advantage Report Survey benchmarked against all other participating buying groups, with feedback being gathered across the extensive range of their Supply Partners.

It is a fantastic achievement for the Group to be ranked No. 1 in each of the following categories: Partnership, Reputation, Execution and Vision, ahead of their 40^th anniversary celebration next year with many of its current members having been part of the Sugro Family since the establishment of the business 39 years ago.

The Group has had 17 consecutive years of growth and continues to sustain their strong performance throughout 2023 with the double-digit growth delivered across key categories in the first half of the calendar year.

With the Group’s commercial strategy focussed on digitalisation, diversification and business development, Sugro UK invested in additional business development resource earlier this year. The Group now employs two Business Development Managers – Shruti Senapati covering the North of the country and Sue Hubber who looks after the South. The focus for both BDMs is to work in partnership with the Members and Suppliers to provide all necessary support in delivering mutual growth for the business as well as to bring new wholesalers to the Group.

Shruti rejoined Sugro UK as a Business Development Manager, following three years with the Buying Group looking after its Marketing. She has an extensive knowledge of the wholesale industry, fully understands wholesale challenges and is keen to engage with suppliers in any opportunities that can help with moving the Group forward and achieving mutually beneficial growth. Shruti is very passionate about the Group and its members success. 

Sue joined the Group from First Quality Foods, where she was Commercial Manager. Before that she worked for Tea Times Trading and FreeDrinks, and she spent 22 years at Britvic covering convenience, forecourts and grocery in national account and business development roles. Sue has been in the industry for many years and is very familiar with the way buying groups operate so she can focus on delivering tangible results based on member and supplier needs.

Since Shruti and Sue came on board, they have visited over 80 Members and provided a fantastic level of support to the membership and will continue supporting both Members and Suppliers going forward. With the Sugro Supplier – Member Networking event taking place in September, both Shruti and Sue will be at the event providing their support.

The group’s unique selling point and focus remains to be member-centric with a very strong sense of community amongst Sugro wholesalers. Sugro Head Office Team makes a huge effort in fully understanding individual needs of each wholesaler and works in partnership with suppliers to address these needs.

2023 has been a fantastic year so far with 7 new Members joining the Group, including Nasco who joined Sugro from NBC having previously been one of the founding members in the former Buying Group. The seven Members add over £250m in total to the Group combined buying power of £2bn.

The Group is very proud of the feedback received from its Members and Supply Partners.

Director of Sandea Wholesale, Sanjeet Manek commented, “Building effective long-term relations between suppliers is challenging, even more so in this unprecedented environment. We had approached Sugro and we found that they could provide us with even more than we anticipated. Our membership with Sugro is enjoying the breadth of knowledge, cumulative buying power and their innovative approach to the wholesale industry.

We look forward to building a strong partnership with the SUGRO team and leveraging their expertise and resources to further grow our business and better serve our customers.”

Ben Cooper Wholesale Controller, Swizzels said: “Sugro are a key Strategic Business Partner for Swizzels where we have more than doubled the size of the Business in 3 years. The Head Office have skilled personnel at all levels to drive key initiatives, which are all designed to deliver extra distribution, heightened awareness, new business & strong sales growth through a combination of Digital / Print & Social assets, and now backed up with a desire to drive actionable insight. The support from the members is also 1^st rate as they take these initiatives and deliver them to their (and our) customers at a local level, ensuring that the relevance to each community or environment is maximised for extra sales. They are an invaluable partner to Swizzels and I look forward to even more success in the years to come”.

“Joining Sugro was the best business decision I ever took. Sugro has always been transparent, honest, and at all times acted with integrity. I’ve never looked back since I joined Sugro. “said Tony Cox, Managing Director of Splendour Wholesale and Sugro Chair who joined Sugro from Confex.

Ashish Vidani, Nasco who have recently joined the Group from NBC, commented: “We are thrilled with our experience partnering with the Sugro Buying Group! They have provided us with access to top-notch suppliers and promotions, leading to remarkable sales growth. Thanks to Sugro, we now offer a broader range of brands and more competitive pricing, while their enticing incentives and supplier competitions keep us motivated to excel. A truly professional and rewarding collaboration!”

Thomas Freeman, director of Freemans Confectionery Supplies Ltd who have recently rejoined the Group, said: “Freeman’s are a long-established 3rd generation family run business already supplying stocks across most of the UK, and since joining Sugro, we are confident that this will provide us the required range, pricing and support to achieve our growth objectives, adding the extra product ranges to complement our already large product portfolio of products to sell.

Sugro have shown us that they work tirelessly for their members, which ultimately benefits everyone small or large with the growth of the group as a whole. We have had a great experience since joining recently and look forward to growing our business even further.”

“It has been great for my company to join Sugro. It helps to open up many doors for us, the amount of support is great!” commented Lisa Qiao, Director, YKW International.

If you are interested in joining the Group please contact Shruti Senapati shruti.senapati@sugro.co.uk or Sue Hubber sue.hubber@sugro.co.uk