SCOTLAND’S most resilient and innovative wholesalers have been recognised and rewarded by the industry at the annual Scottish Wholesale Achievers Awards.

Achievers, now in its 19th year and organised by the Scottish Wholesale Association, recognises excellence across all sectors of the wholesale industry and the achievements that have made a difference to individuals, communities and businesses over the last two years.


 

Further to the Scottish Government's announcement on the launch of a £5m Scottish Wholesale Food & Drink Resilience Fund, SWA provides wholesalers with advice and help in the application process.

Scottish Wholesale Association has welcomed today’s announcement by Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy Kate Forbes that an additional £10 million is to be made available to support the food and drink wholesale sector as it recovers from the pandemic.

The SWA is working with the Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society (SAOS) and Scotland Food & Drink to deliver a ‘Meet the Wholesaler’ event as part of the next phase of our ‘Delivering Growth through Wholesale’ programme.

Designed to facilitate engagement and business between local Scottish producers and wholesalers, the Meet the Wholesaler event follows a series of workshops that will provide the tools and information needed to maximise opportunities when working together in developing markets for ‘local’ products.

Scottish Wholesale Association has welcomed the First Minister’s announcement that food and drink wholesalers will get access to the £8 million supply chain funding from the Scottish Government’s £100 million Omicron business support package.

With the arrival of the Omicron variant and the Scottish Government’s advice that people should defer Christmas parties, there has been an immediate and devastating impact on businesses still struggling to recover.

Colin Smith, SWA chief executive, said that support for wholesale is likely to build on the Scottish Wholesale Food and Drink Resilience Fund established by the Scottish Government this time last year to help wholesalers affected by coronavirus restrictions.

This specially commissioned report by SWA shows that almost three-quarters of Scottish consumers agreed they are concerned about environmental and sustainability issues and unsurprisingly a similar proportion say they are more concerned now than they were three years ago.

Sustainability already influences where consumers shop for groceries – 38% of Scots agree with this statement and this is going to rise in importance as 50% of those asked said it will influence where they shop more in the future.

SWA training provider, Capita Learning has secured funding from Skills Development Scotland (SDS) to run a fully funded BCS SCQF Level7 Digital Skills Training Course worth £3k per learner.

The course has been specifically designed to focus on Data Analysis, and data presentation, and is part SWA’s ‘Decarbonisation of The Wholesale Industry’ project plans in helping the wholesale industry on the road to net zero. The course, outlined within the attached document, will give the employee the capability to start and analyse your company’s data – including fleet emissions, route planning & efficiencies, building efficiencies etc.

The Scottish Wholesale Association (SWA) is working with the Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society (SAOS) and Scotland Food & Drink to deliver the next phase of our 'Delivering Growth through Wholesale' programme. 

Designed to improve and encourage engagement between producers and wholesalers, the programme will continue in its' roll-out. Providing businesses with the tools and information to help them maximise opportunities within the wholesale industry and which is currently worth £1.7billion (GVA) to the Scottish economy.

Running in parallel to each other are the 'Wholesaler Workshops' and 'Producer Workshops', culminating in a 'Meet the Buyer' event on 9th March, with more details on this to be shared soon.

SWA are delighted to share the findings of the first phase of our ‘Decarbonisation of the Wholesale Sector’ project.

The  reports focus on our vehicles and fleets, calculating and reporting on our sector’s ‘Fleet Emissions Baseline’ and the production of a ‘Fleet Emissions Roadmap’ to Net Zero.

Phase two of our project will focus on our buildings and cold storage and phase three our people/employees and how they move around to/from/within their job.

This project is one of the most detailed undertaken by any sector and is based on real data and evidence, compiled direct from our wholesale members.

 

Food Standards Scotland has been working a range of stakeholders, including SWA, around the introduction of new PPDS legislation across the UK from Friday 1 October. Read about the role SWA have played in the PPDS process and how our supplier member, Erudus, can provide wholesalers and end-users with solutions to ensure they comply with the legislation