Paul Hill speaks to Yulia Petitt, the head of commercial and marketing at Sugro
PH: What has been your most significant achievement over the past 12 months?
YP: We at Sugro UK are delighted to have been voted number-one buying group in the Advantage Report Survey, benchmarked against all other participating buying groups, with feedback being gathered across the extensive range of their supply partners.
It was a fantastic achievement for the group to be ranked first across all categories: Partnership, Reputation, Execution and Vision, ahead of our 40th anniversary celebration in July, with many of our members having been part of the Sugro family since the establishment of the business.
What is your unique selling point?
We are extremely passionate about our digital offering. At Sugro, we are committed to working with both members and suppliers on delivering e-commerce solutions that will give the group the opportunity to further enhance its digital offering.
This has been a key focus for Sugro over recent years, and is something we feel we are leading on as a buying group. Alongside the bespoke member website development provision, we have direct ordering facilities as well as a Sugro all-in-one B2B e-commerce platform with e-loyalty scheme, WhatsApp for Business API, Split Testing and more.
We have also launched SIS Data Platform in partnership with TWC last year, with the system functionality going from strength to strength.
The group’s unique selling point and focus remains to be member-centric with a very strong sense of community among Sugro wholesalers.
The team makes a huge effort in fully understanding the individual needs of each wholesaler and works in partnership with suppliers to address these needs. We will continue working hard on growing the Sugro family.
Number of members: 95
Latest members: SoSweet Online
Group Buying Power: £2.5bn
How have you expanded and attracted new members over the past 12 months?
With the group’s commercial strategy focused on digitalisation, diversification and business development, Sugro UK invested in additional business development resource in 2023.
The group now employs two BDMs. Their focus 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.
Over the past year, Sugro has shifted its attention from primarily focusing on impulse products to a broader range of category offerings including foodservice, catering, non-food and alcohol products.
The strategic pivot towards diversification supports Sugro in meeting the ever-evolving demands of our members, as well as the potential to capture new markets.
We have had a few members with a background in fast food, grocery and online trading joining the group over the past 12 months, which certainly underpins the group diversification strategy.
Read more: Sugro agrees ERP deal for members
What are your plans to help members over the next 12 months?
We have recently launched our e-Loyalty scheme to reward our members’ customers and drive customer loyalty into their e-commerce platforms. Retailers will be offered rewards for completing different tasks associated with participating brands, such as purchasing a certain quantity of a particular product or range, then taking a picture of the in-store display as evidence of execution.
We have also recently partnered with digital signage experts Add Vision to provide our members and their customers with access to state-of-the-art, commercial-grade digital display screens. Members will be able to seamlessly integrate the digital display screens not only within their depots, but also in retail stores and fast-food outlets they supply.
The aim is to continue developing business for our members, with e-commerce being the centrepiece.
