SLR speaks to Parfetts boss Guy Swindell about why the group is making moves in Scotland and what it’s got to offer.
By Sarah Britton
Last year proved pivotal for wholesaler and retail club operator Parfetts, marked by the opening of its ninth depot in Southampton and the announcement that it would part ways with the Unitas buying group. Parfetts’ turnover grew to £733m for the year ending 30 June 2025 and the company confidently announced that it expects to surpass £1bn within the next three years.
What’s more, Go Local store numbers soared to 1,950, making it one of the fastest-growing symbol groups in the UK, and the Go Local Extra fascia made its Scottish debut in July with the opening of SR Freshway Lockerbie in Dumfries & Galloway.
Around the same time, Parfetts took on its first Retail Development Advisor (RDA) for Scotland (and Cumbria) to recruit more Scottish retailers, initially with a focus on Dumfries & Galloway and Galashiels. Since then, the group’s Scottish expansion has accelerated quickly, with retailer demand rising across the Borders, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Motherwell. Parfetts is already making over 100 deliveries across Scotland every week. The firm is also currently hiring for another RDA to look after Glasgow.
So why has the group decided to expand into Scotland? “It’s probably a case of why not?” says Joint Managing Director Guy Swindell. “Through our Middlesbrough site we have been edging further north over the past few years. “It’s always been the case that you go into one area, you meet a customer and he says, ‘I’ve got a store in this area as well, would you be able to service it?’ And where we can, we will. That’s what led us into Scotland and then most recently we’ve had some requests from customers around the Glasgow and Edinburgh areas, so we’ve just been facilitating that logistically.”
With new advisors dedicated to Scotland, the figures will only go in one direction. “We’ve got people in the area that will be calling into stores and so I expect that customer base to grow,” says Swindell. “Normally this is the quieter time of the year and then we’ll probably see it grow again as we get to summer. But we’re really pleased with the initial reception we’ve had thus far from customers and, obviously, we’re really enthused about what the future in Scotland could look like in terms of symbols and customer base, it’s really exciting.”
Fascia in focus
SR Freshway Lockerbie, operated by Raj and Ravi Sankaranathan, has already made its mark, leading the charge at Parfetts’ Go Local Ball last December where it was crowned Best New Store of the Year, having already achieved a 50% increase in turnover compared with its first month.
“It’s a brilliant store in Lockerbie, great retailers, really proactive, an unbelievable site, it’s done incredibly well,” says Swindell. “That was the first foray and little test into a different market. Having seen the success of that store and what it’s done for the customer, it obviously spurred us on and showed that Go Local can work across all regions and countries and different demographics.”
Parfetts National Sales Controller, Joe Tindle, previously told SLR that the firm was on track to have 10 Go Local stores in Scotland by summer 2026, but Swindell claims that specific numbers aren’t a key focus. “We’ve already got a pipeline of stores that are working along the fascia route with us,” he says. “So we’re working with customers now to help them decide: What are their needs for the store? What particular brand are they looking for? What’s the customer demographic? What’s going to help their store most? I’m pretty confident that we will see quite a decent number of stores already badged in the summer. I know everyone’s interested in the numbers, but really we’re just happy to be there for customers, as an option for supply and obviously down the line, we always get a big interest in fascia and we know that will help their store long term. Undoubtedly, we will see Go Locals appearing across the regions we’re in.”
He claims that there are no immediate expansion plans for Scotland around specific cities, towns, or regions. “We really are led by the customer and if we can meet it logistically, we will obviously look to consider pushing further north,” he says. “But we’ve been inundated thus far with the areas we’re in in Scotland, so we’ve got plenty to get our teeth stuck into.”
A Scottish depot is a potential consideration further down the line. “We only just opened our Southampton depot last September, so being quite honest, another depot right now is not top of the priority list. But you can never rule anything out. Three years ago, we opened our Birmingham site, so I’m sure in the future we would consider a Scottish depot and look at opportunities. But right now we’ve got our hands full with just the amount of customers that have shown interest and want deliveries.”
So what does the group have up its sleeve to tempt Scots? “Being an employee-owned business really is our superpower,” grins Swindell. “What that means is every individual that works for Parfetts treats it as their own, has autonomy. We really, really push the relationship, with the customer being key. So there’s a lot of flexibility in that relationship. We like to work closely with the customers, but making sure that they still enjoy the freedoms of it as an independent retailer.
“We’re very quick to make decisions and we like to think we have something for everyone. So whatever size of store or location or demographic of customer base; whether you are a single store operator, a multi-site operator; whether this is your first store or your last store, we have an option for you.”
Swindell says that the strength of its retail club and symbol operation – and that its employee-owned – means Parfetts invests everything back into the business. “We invest into margin; we invest into the stores with store developments; we invest heavily into the marketing, whether it’s the physical point of sale or digital and social media.
“Everything we generate as a business stays within that business. The customers reap the benefits of that. We are very unique in the industry but, hopefully, our recent success is a testament to what we can offer customers.”
Indeed, it is the company’s success across the UK that has led to the firm opting to exit from Unitas. “We are now operating nationally, and we have symbols from London to Lockerbie, and in North and South Wales,” says Swindell. “We’re venturing into lots of new areas. We have already got a strong relationship with suppliers, and we just feel that now is the right time where we’ve outgrown a buying group that really is there to help regional operators with scale.”
The group is keen to cultivate its supplier relations. “Working closer with suppliers ultimately can bring rewards [for our customers] not just in terms of range and pricing, but we’re also just launching Go for Growth, which is our merchandising and category insight strategy that will directly benefit customers in terms of range and category insight and making sure they have all the data on hand,” says Swindell.
“We have our own merchandising teams as well, working directly with the suppliers in terms of range insight and then implementing directly into stores to hopefully assist in increasing footfall, sales and profit for customers.”
Own-brand benefits
Another jewel in the wholesaler’s crown is its own-brand offer. “We started a number of years ago to produce our own label. That’s proved incredibly successful with over 250 lines,” says Swindell. There are plans for this to grow rapidly under Trading Director Cheryl Hope, who joined the business last April.
“We’re continuing to add to that estate and focus on the quality, the branding and the commercials for the customer,” says Swindell. “Obviously with the symbol estate, we’ve got the distribution point for the volume and scale required. We’ve got a number of SKUs imminent across the licenced range. It’s really worked for us and, and clearly for the customers as well. It gives retailers a USP, it gives them a preferential margin as well. And they are really strong lines. Wherever we’ve gone into these new areas we’ve been keen to get it out to customers because it creates loyalty between them and us. But importantly, it helps, especially in the times we’re in now, give their consumers the value that people are really looking for now without missing out on quality.”
Parfetts’ own label claims to offer healthy margins. “It depends obviously on the category, but you can be up near 25-30 per cent,” says Swindell. “Obviously licenced is going to be a little bit less, on grocery it’s higher, confectionery, it’s good. It can be as high as 40/50/60 per cent on some non-food lines.”
The group is embracing technology in order to get new lines processed more quickly, having recently signed a partnership with AI-powered platform Wholepal. Completing and processing new line forms manually is an error-prone and time-consuming process, but the new platform allows suppliers to upload their product specification documents, and the information is then extracted, structured and stored automatically, ready to be shared with wholesale partners and removing the need for physical forms.
“We’re looking at our systems and processes and where we can improve efficiency and ultimately improve service levels,” says Swindell. “We’ve got probably 8 or 9,000 lines listed. We’ve got probably 300-odd suppliers. So you can just imagine how many orders and new line forms and administration currently goes on. It’s quite a manual task currently that something like Wholepal and AI in general could really cut through a lot of the admin time.
“The more time we can focus on customer demands and less time on administration tasks and laborious exercises, the better. You’ve got to ensure that you manage it and integrate it sensibly and ensure that there’s no drop in service levels and such. It’ll be a cautious approach, but clearly there’s some huge benefits to it.”
The group has continued to invest into digital, which is “massively important” for the business. “Over half the business is through online orders now so we continue to invest heavily into that. We have just integrated Nextworld, which is an accounting software package and we’ve also introduced Enable, which is an invoicing platform.”
The firm also uses a business intelligence platform called Phocas to help with data and cloud-based logistics software solution, Podfather, to improve the efficiency of deliveries and routing.
Going forward, Swindell is hopeful that Scotland will become a bigger part of the Parfetts picture. “There’s a healthy amount of customers ordering every week and that number is growing. The amount in terms of value into Scotland is increasing week on week,” he says. “We’ve had some really good early success, so we’ll look to push on and increase that customer and sales volume.
“The most exciting thing for me is to be seeing Go Locals across Scotland, in addition to the one we’ve already got, while at the same time, you’ll be seeing them across Wales and England. I think there’s an appetite for it from what our initial ventures have seen. Long term, we could be looking at a big number in Scotland.”
