Wholesalers urge chancellor to cut food costs

Food & Drink Wholesale UK (FWD) members have dispatched letters to Chancellor John Healey, urging him to maintain affordable food prices and stimulate local growth by eliminating preventable expenses within the food supply chain.

The letter’s signatories, encompassing senior executives from distributors such as Sysco GB, Bestway Wholesale, Parfetts, Bidfood, and AF Blakemore, claimed that financial burdens extend past warehouse gates and ultimately impact household food expenditures.

FWD members have presented five actionable proposals, including safeguarding key wholesale facilities from unintended business rates hikes.

They are requesting that authorities grant exemptions for critical food and beverage wholesale warehouses from raised warehouse taxes or increased business rates multipliers.

FWD research discovered that 80% of surveyed wholesalers operate sites exceeding the £500,000 rateable value threshold.

Participants indicated business rates had already surged by 25% to 30% in recent three years, with 80% asserting additional hikes would compel staff reductions or recruitment freezes.

The group is also advocating for public procurement strategies to support domestic food producers and regional suppliers while promoting wholesale and logistics as pathways to quality employment.

They contend the budget should offer enhanced employment cost stability, ensure policy choices are evidence-based and cost-assessed, and explore targeted employer National Insurance relief for firms hiring and training youth.

The association is pressuring for reduced food and packaging waste without introducing avoidable logistics expenses.

They emphasized that extended producer responsibility charges must remain clear and forecastable, while the deposit return scheme should function uniformly across all four nations.

Additionally, they urge avoiding a fuel duty cliff edge for critical food transport, outlining a definitive road freight decarbonization strategy, and sustaining incentives for zero-emission HGV investments.

FWD CEO James Bielby stated: “When business rates, employment, fuel, energy and regulatory costs climb, these pressures flow through the food distribution network to independent retailers, pubs and eateries, schools, hospitals and care institutions – and eventually to household food budgets.

“Each cost stands alone. What wholesalers require is greater foresight and acknowledgment of the combined pressures on businesses managing narrow profit margins. Our members are prepared to collaborate with officials to convert these practical measures into implementation.