JW Filshill trucks

JW Filshill get top ranking in Advantage Benchmarking Report

Scottish wholesaler JW Filshill is celebrating being ranked number one in a category in the Advantage Group Report.

To cap the excitement, Filshill’s convenience store group, KeyStore also topped another category.

The respected Advantage Benchmarking Report asks suppliers to rate a defined set of wholesalers and symbol groups across across the whole of the UK, covering several categories ranging from category and business development to supply chain management, payment processes and execution of promotional and marketing plans.

And Filshill come out on top in the wholesale channel programme for the ninth year in succession while KeyStore led the fascia groups for the third consecutive year.

“It has been part of our strategy for many years to take a partnership approach to working with suppliers by collaborating with them and sharing information and making them part of our success story – we view suppliers as part of the extended Filshill family,” said Filshill CEO Simon Hannah.

“Through open and honest dialogue with suppliers, we can identify opportunities and by sharing the insight/data we gather from our supply chain technology we are able to find solutions, predict key growth areas and work together on future plans, including new product development.”

The past 16 months has been particularly difficult to maintain those close relationships due to Covid-19, but Filshill’s adoption of virtual meeting techniques has been particularly beneficial.

“Some people we may not have always been able meet face to face pre-Covid for various reasons found it easier to engage with us in virtual meetings, and that gave us an opportunity to give them a better insight into our business and plans for the future,” he said.

“I’m extremely proud of our hardworking team for consistently achieving such high standards, particularly during what has been a challenging time for suppliers and our retail customers.

“One supplier alluded to our people being a ‘key strength’ and Filshill’s ‘strong team’ – that is testament to their commitment to our business and customers.”

The highly respected annual report provides a good read on what the sector is feeling and ranks a number of different categories.

While the final lists aren’t published, several wholesalers will celebrate their performance based on the results.

Wholesalers also get to read supplier feedback, with one survey response adding a glowing endorsement of Filshill.

The supplier wrote: “Because JW Filshill is very collaborative and open, we feel the same message transpires all the way through the business with them.

“They want to share what is important to them but they also take an interest in what is important to us which makes the channel of communication a lot clearer. They are willing to support us on our agendas which just makes everything so much easier.”

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