Sugro UK: Bespoke, tailored support

BUYING GROUPS

Yulia Petitt, Head of Commercial & Marketing at Sugro UK, shares the group’s plans for the coming months

Owned by its members, Sugro UK focuses on driving growth for independent wholesalers, offering a ‘family’ culture. We know our members very well and we offer bespoke, tailored support to each individual member via our business development managers, leadership team, events and regular communication.

As a group, we have now enjoyed 20 consecutive years of growth, finishing 2025 in growth of +6% versus the same period in 2024.

During the past 12 months, there have been a number of highlights for the group, including partnering with e-bate to launch an intelligent, automated rebate management system. This solution allows members to track, forecast and maximise overrider earnings while optimising supplier relationships through better data visibility.

The system provides our members with:

• enhanced visibility – full transparency of all overrider agreements by supplier, allowing members to identify gaps and adjust purchasing decisions to maximise earnings
• efficiency – reduced time spent on manual calculations and minimised number of errors in tracking spend progress and, in particular, ORD earnings
• strategic growth – the tool aids in monitoring performance across various criteria, including growth and core range compliance.

Since launching this, members have shared great feedback with us, finding the system easy to navigate and benefiting from invaluable insights for financial planning and improved purchasing decisions. Within a couple of months of launching, we already have 30 suppliers on board.

SUPPORT

Sugro supports members by leveraging collective buying power for better supplier pricing, promotions and product availability. We provide a full spectrum of free-of-charge digital marketing tools and centralised invoicing access, as well as central distribution solutions, and we help members to reduce their operations costs through partnerships with procurement companies such as Procure Partners and Trustkeys.

We also provide members with free-ofcharge access to industry insights via NielsenIQ Brandbank and Lumina Intelligence, alongside specialised support for carbon footprint reduction via a recent partnership with My Emissions.

Our support for members includes data and insight via TWC and sample box initiatives to deliver new product samples to retailers, quick-service restaurants and members.

We offer an extensive events programme too, such as our spring trade show, September networking event and conference, yearly summer event and, of course, our annual business convention overseas.

DIGITAL

Sugro prides itself on driving digital innovation by staying ahead in digital tools and technology, offering a free-of-charge, all-in-one digital solution – accessible by web, tablet and mobile phone – bespoke websites, retail e-loyalty scheme, WhatsApp for Business API, the Drive Your Sales digital portal and magazine, and a pioneering, trackable rebate management system.

We continue to focus on enhancing our digital offering for members, whether it be head office solutions or at member level, tailored specifically to their individual needs. We are also working in partnership with our key suppliers on developing AI solutions across both wholesale and retail arenas.

Last year we launched our AI Accelerator initiative in partnership with b2b.store to provide specialised AI consultancy for our independent wholesale members. The programme aims to boost sales, improve efficiency and automate tasks to streamline internal procedures. We believe that the initiative will enable members to gain a competitive edge by leveraging AI for better performance tracking, increased distribution and improved supplier relationships.

LOOKING AHEAD

The biggest opportunities for our members lie in embracing AI-driven automation, digital-first sales and sustainability to boost efficiency and meet changing consumer demands. There is no doubt that AI is moving from novelty to a core engine for demand forecasting, inventory management and automated replenishment, reducing waste and overstocking. It’s important to look at ways to deploy technology to be ahead of the competition.