Bestway Vans delivers another year of customer growth

Bestway Vans Direct has delivered another phenomenal year with seven per cent year-on-year customer growth, the Bestway Wholesale has announced.

Launched five years ago, the business has continued to grow consistently every year despite immensely challenging trading conditions, such as national lockdowns, supply chain disruptions and market-place cost pressures.

Part of the Bestway Wholesale family, Bestway Vans Direct is a syndicated salesforce that operates in two bespoke business units. Bestway Snacks operates for key suppliers in the Crisps, Snacks and Biscuit category whilst Bestway Sweets operates for key suppliers in the confectionery category.

Through strong in-store relations, team expertise in merchandising, category advice, and market leading iPad technology, Bestway Vans bring to life supplier plans in over 21,000 independent retailers every working day of the year, placing more than 25,000 pieces of point-of-sale equipment each year.

Bestway Vans is now forecast to turn over more than £80m in 2023.

“Our ethos is working. We are selling more, and helping our retailers make more through offering them an agile service to keep the right products on shelves and turn orders around quickly,” Dan Lewis, Bestway Vans director, said.

“The business is in great shape and I’m really proud of what the team has achieved across the last five years during what has to be the toughest trading conditions the market has seen in decades.”

Bestway Vans offers an agile and much needed service.  Its vans make just-in-time deliveries, stocking up its vans from 34 Bestway and Batleys depots nationwide, every weekday before hitting the road. Each Bestway Vans Customer Sales Representative (CSR), visits more around 18 customers each day to make an order, and grow in store range whilst stocking up their shop instantly from the van.

Dawood Pervez, managing director for Bestway Wholesale, expressed his delight at the performance of the Van’ sales division over the last five years, adding that it has given the Bestway Wholesale business a unique point of difference in the market.

He also commented that he was delighted see that the business has added 56 custom-designed vans to its fleet as part of its replacement and investment program to ensure Bestway Vans’ CSRs continue to provide world-class service to independent retailers:

“We know from listening to our customers that Bestway Vans provides an agile, much needed services,” Pervez said.

“If we look back to ‘the beginning’ in 2017, insight showed that delivered wholesale had increased 30 per cent in ten years reaching £11.3bn versus only a 20 per cent increase in cash and carry. This highlighted the need to increase delivered initiatives evidencing an increase in the wholesale market overall.”

Bestway Vans Direct offers retailers’ multiple supplier benefits including activating and access to NPD for sweets and snacks and other categories such as grocery, as well as siting POS in retail stores and carrying out surveys to provide valuable insight in products and market trends.

Lewis confirms that the more retailers buy, the higher the discount they receive helping them to make more alongside highly competitive pricing:

“With our Bestway Vans Direct, there is stock immediately available and placed in store, there is no charge for delivery or MOQ, and the internally owned iPad technology can transfer orders so that stock can be allocated, or customers shopping from a sweet van can benefit from a snacks van,” he said.

“It’s a win-win service that is leading the market in terms of just-in-time deliveries and keeping products on shelves”.