Sugro UK

Sugro is one of the UK’s largest food and beverage wholesale buying and marketing groups, with more than 90 members that span across the entire nation.

Sugro UK is a buying and marketing group with decades of experience. They’re run as a co-operative for more than 90 food and drink wholesalers across Britain. They specialise in confectionery, soft drinks, grocery, crisps and snacks, but have diversified in recent years to offer even more to the 16,000 retail stores which their members service.

As a buying and marketing group, Sugro offers a raft of services to its members and must continually innovate to retain its place as one of the country’s best – and digital is at the heart of their ambitions.

That means b2b.store is regularly on hand to listen to the challenges Sugro faces and works with the head office team to come up with bespoke solutions that will deliver results. That has led to Sugro earning a reputation for being the first in the sector to launch a host of digital innovations, including an eLoyalty rewards scheme and free eCommerce integration.

Communication is key to continually test and learn ideas to try out solutions and refine them to work for all of Sugro’s members. To do this, Sugro identified a handful of willing members to try out innovations and provide honest feedback on how well they work, allowing b2b.store to iterate further.

In addition to technical consultancy, Sugro has also used b2b.store’s creative services to plan, film and edit videos for their annual conference to showcase their members’ digital activity.

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Sugro UK: In numbers

Diverse members to service across the UK

First loyalty scheme of its kind when launched

Retail stores serviced by Sugro members

The Sugro and b2b.store relationship

How do Sugro and b2b.store work together?

The teams at Sugro and b2b.store are in regular contact, discussing performance of existing services or common challenges Sugro’s members face. This allows b2b.store to build a strong understanding of Sugro’s business and paired with our extensive knowledge of the wholesale industry, we are able to suggest ideas to help. Digital adoption is a key aim of Sugro’s leadership team so innovation is a two-way exercise, with regular trials held to monitor what works best.

What is Sugro’s eLoyalty scheme?

A key challenge for all wholesalers is to retain customer loyalty in a price-driven, promiscuous industry, so Sugro wanted to help its members achieve more repeat purchases. Working with b2b.store, the solution was a reward and recognition scheme that allowed retailers to find supplier incentives to buy certain products or complete different tasks to boost sales, improve in-store merchandising or another metric. This was initially housed in an online hub, but evolved into WhatsApp and vouchering thanks to further development.

How does Sugro’s eCommerce integration work?

b2b.store has been Sugro’s recommended eCommerce provider for several years, but thanks to a partnership with ERP integration experts, Vision 33, the buying group’s members can seamlessly integrate with other software solutions in their business. Integration is a common barrier to setting up online, with wholesaler using a variety of different ERPs, so joining all the dots was a big upgrade to what Sugro offers.