National Buying Consortium: A winning route to market
BUYING GROUPS
Group Managing Director David Lunt shares how National Buying Consortium stands out from other buying groups in a challenging market
Buying groups do what buying groups do, right? For many, many years buying groups have existed for a purpose across numerous industries and sales channels. In the UK, buying groups have existed in food and beverage for many decades and continue to provide an essential service – they help the smaller guys compete with the bigger guys, creating a more level playing field, especially for smaller independent businesses.
Over time, buying groups have tended to get bigger and offer a wider variety of services. But one thread remains: they exist to get better terms from suppliers by consolidating buying power but, and here is the current question facing the industry, is this enough? Supplier consolidation of supply chains is nothing new; it has been happening for a long time. In 2026, as we look back over the last six years of our buying group’s experience, we think that the pace and depth of change has quickened. More and more we see distribution points closed, accounts closed, minimum order quantities raised and, in some cases, the independent channel de-emphasised dramatically. The significance is easy to see; more and more independent businesses are finding it more and more difficult to access brands to serve their own customers – and certainly not in practical quantities and competitive prices.
DIFFERENT
National Buying Consortium (NBC) has one simple task for its members: to get access to leading brands at competitive pricing and in realistic order quantities. It cannot do this without a route-to-market solution when the pressure upon suppliers to consolidate is so strong. So, how does NBC manage to do this in a different way to the other buying groups?
The answer is National Distribution Network (NDN) – the group’s wholly owned, non-competing central warehousing and logistics solution that provides a safe and reliable route-to-market solution for suppliers, members and third-party customers. It provides multiple benefits to suppliers, including reduced credit risk exposure, centralised order to cash administration, centralised bulk purchasing, and access to both members and third-party customers. For customers, it provides access to more than 50 supplier brands, central ordering and invoicing, net pricing, realistic MOQs and consolidated orders across all suppliers, and these things are integrated into everything that we do as a group.
WHOLESALER VIEW
JOE MARLOW, Spectrum Foodservice
“We decided to join NBC in its first few months of operations. This decision has been the foundation of building our original business – Candy Box – into the foodservice operation we have today. Without access to the brands, at great net prices, and sourcing minimum order quantities that made sense, we would not be able to offer the range of products to the new channels that we now serve.
“Our thanks to the team at NBC and all our supplier partners that have helped us on our successful journey.”
buying groups David Lunt National Buying Consortium Spectrum Foodservice
