Member Article

Fairway Foodservice set new record at bi-annual Meet the Member event

Deals worth more than £832,000 were completed at a record-breaking membership event hosted by buying group Fairway Foodservice.

The most successful ever Meet the Member event has prompted Fairway Foodservice to make its next meeting, scheduled for September 8 and 9, even bigger in order to meet member and supplier demand.

Purchases by the buying group’s 17 members topped the previous record high of £727,000 completed at its March 2014 event. Fairway Foodservice is now on course to eclipse the £1.3m in deals concluded in 2014’s two Meet the Member events.

The two-day event, held at Villa Park in late March, also saw 11 new grocery listings and 15 frozen products added to Fairway Foodservice’s own-label lines.

Steve Jeavons, Fairway Foodservice’s purchasing director, said: “The £832,000 worth of concluded deals illustrates how valuable our Meet the Member events are to both our members and suppliers.

“On the back of this success, we’re planning on making our next event bigger and better than ever before. This will include allocating more space and time for our suppliers on our second day to meet demand both from them and our members.”

The record-breaking meeting follows the recent announcement that Fairway Foodservice’s 17 members have increased their collective turnover by 11 per cent in 2014 to £556m.

New own-label frozen listings include a range of ready meals under Fairway Foodservice’s Classics label, and in grocery four new and improved jars of pickles and 4.5m baking parchment were added to the Fairway Professional range.

Emma Betts, national account manager for Mars Food UK who attended the event, said: “Attending the Meet the Member event is invaluable. It provides the perfect opportunity to see all of the members, discuss priorities and plan for the months ahead.

“With the support of the Fairway team I can pre-sell my deal of the day via their bulletins, so that on the day we don’t waste valuable face to face time on orders. We work together on driving the business forward and developing new opportunities.

“Seeing members, the team at head office and suppliers working so well together makes me proud to be involved. A fantastic event that I put my name down for at every opportunity is not one to be missed!”

Fairway Foodservice is a buying and marketing organization operating on behalf of wholesalers based in the UK, Ireland and Spain. Founded in 1984 by five frozen food wholesale distribution companies, it has grown from a collective turnover of £7m in 1984 to £556m in 2014.

Members benefit from access to a range of more than 550 own-label products, collective buying power on a number of lines, significant marketing support and subscription discounts to the Erudus One product specification database.

For more information on Fairway Foodservice, visit www.fairwayfoodservice.com, or follow Fairway Foodservice on Twitter @fairwayfood.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sam Harris .