Coronavirus UK: Food wholesalers, lockdown’s ‘best kept secret’

 JJ Foodservice 

Order online for next day delivery – depending on your location

The business who supplied Wasabi, You Me Sushi and schools are also now selling to the public. 

Sezer Ozkul, Chief Products Officer told FEMAIL: ‘Our business literally changed overnight –  on March 21st we had an emergency strategy meeting. 

‘By the end of the day, our Next Day Home Delivery Service was live, offering next day deliveries for orders placed by 9pm with a minimum order of just £79. 

‘We advertised this via a social media and the response has been extremely positive – we are taking on new customers every day and the messages to our customers services team have increased 400 per cent as more people are making inquiries about setting up a new account. 

‘This will probably come as no surprise, but our toilet roll sales increased by 150 per cent – we were selling up to five containers more per week. Pasta, hand wash and bizarrely fresh chicken sales also went up significantly. To better support households, we are increasing our range of smaller pack sizes for essential household groceries such as cheese, tea bags, fresh vegetables and fruits.  

ESSENTIALS AVAILABLE TO ORDER  

Creed Foodservices

Online order for home delivery or collection in selected locations across the UK 

David Antony, from Creed Foodservices told FEMAIL they initially didn’t see a downturn in sales as a direct result of the outbreak of Covid-19.

‘However, with the forced closure of cafes, restaurants and destination leisure sites, we then saw a significant impact on our business as the majority of our customers closed their doors overnight’ he explained.

‘We have a strong customer base within the Care sector, and we are continuing to work tirelessly to ensure we’re providing them with the products they need during this uncertain time.

‘Our minimum order value is £50, and customers need to checkout their order before 4.30pm, to collect the very next day. We’re currently offering collections Monday to Friday only, but may reconsider over the coming weeks.

ESSENTIALS AVAILABLE TO ORDER

New Covent Garden Market

After lockdown forced them to close, traders at New Covent Garden Market are selling directly to the public.

A spokesperson told Femail:   ‘The website is receiving huge amounts of traffic, with around 60,000 visiting the fruit and veg box page on the site, compared to roughly 160 hits the website usually sees! 

All Greens

Order a fruit & vegetable box for £30, or an exotic fruit box for £30. Milk, eggs and bread will also be an option when you add a box to your cart. Free shipping for all orders over £30.

EuroFrutta

Three sizes of fruit and vegetable boxes are available, with free delivery on all orders within the London area. The Essential add-on box is perfect for the individual or couple, priced at £15. 

It contains one loaf of bread; one four-pint milk; one greek-style yoghurt; one butter; 12 eggs; and one four-pint freshly-squeezed orange juice. The Fruit and Vegetable box is £25 and recommended for a smaller household, with an assortment of fruit and vegetables. 

The Large Fruit and Vegetable box is £50 and recommended for a large household, offering an assortment of fruit and vegetables.

Fresh Connect

 A free door-step delivery service, with a minimum £30 order. Offering fresh fruit and vegetables, dry goods, dairy, pasta as well as home essentials.

Link Class

Offering fresh fruit, vegetables, bread, eggs and dairy. Linkclass offer three essential boxes: small fruit and veg box £25; large fruit and veg box £45; dairy box £15.

Volcano Coffee Works

Order online for home delivery

Emma Loisel, is co-founder and chair, of Volcano Coffee Works, which supplied more than 350 cafes, restaurants and hotels across the UK and in Paris.

‘We already sold direct to consumer, but it was less than 2 per cent of our overall revenue. Online sales via our website have grown by 680 per cent in three weeks – but it’s still less than 10 per cent of our revenues before Covid-19,’ she said.

‘Consumers buying for home use order small quantities – either a couple of 200kg bags or a 1 kg bag.

‘Packing and posting a much higher quantity of orders is labour intensive and time consuming, we are having to quickly establish new working practices and processes to make sure we can fill these orders. If consumers could do one order for their coffee needs for the next few weeks that will help us and Royal Mail keep up.’

ESSENTIALS AVAILABLE TO ORDER

The Mount Blend, Ground coffee, £6.00 for 200g

Bold Morning Shot Coffee Beans, £6.00 for 200g

Bold Morning Shot (Nespresso Compatible Eco Coffee Pods) £26.00 for 40 pods

Woods Foodservice 

Order over the phone or by email for next day delivery in London and delivery within a few days across the South East 

Darren Labbett the managing director of Woods Foodservice said: ‘We bought in fresh fruit, vegetables, salad and fresh meat boxes to be able to offer a one stop shop, these are very popular. However, it seems that everybody wants toilet rolls and pasta. Luckily we have plenty of both,’ Mr Labbett explained. 

He added that they’ve seen sales of bread flour and yeast shoot up, as people try and make their own bread and cakes at home.

‘As our turnover increases we are able to gradually ask furloughed staff to come back to ensure we keep up with demand.’

ESSENTIALS AVAILABLE TO ORDER 

Dunns Food and Drink 

Order online or via the app for deliveries across Scotland 

Julie Dunn told FEMAIL her family run business lost 70 per cent of business when the lockdown hit.

The company, supply the prestigious Gleneagles golf course as well as DiMaggios, Montpeiirs and Hawksmoor restaurants. 

Ms Dunn said people are buying cleaning materials and toilet rolls, bread, milk, eggs, sugar, flour, butter, pasta, and wine but their luxury food items are not being purchased. 

‘We have been surprised by the number of people interested in catering pack sizes – so – perfectly happy to take 16kg of flour in order to bake for their neighbours. Nice community spirit. 

‘Although most callers are looking for the staples just now, possibly once we are all more used to life in isolation, home cooking will be a pleasant time filler for the family which is why we are posting recipe ideas every day through social media because with 6,500 lines available it is most probable that the home cooks can achieve a global kitchen through Dunns.’ 

ESSENTIALS AVAILABLE TO ORDER  

Bidfood 

Order online for next day delivery, depending on location, or click and collect 

Bidfood one of the UK’s largest foodservice providers was forced to change its business model overnight to support the growing demand for supplies during the Covid-19 outbreak.  

Earlier this month, Bidfood and Brakes  announced they would be joining forces to support a new government initiative to ensure that vital food supplies reach the country’s most vulnerable people during the coronavirus crisis.

The initiative sees the two companies working together to deliver potentially hundreds of thousands of weekly care packages across the country to people at high risk from the virus, who are not able to get easy access to food.

ESSENTIALS AVAILABLE TO ORDER 

Oncore Foodservice

Order online for delivery across the North West 

Rob Coupe, director of Oncore foodservices, said the supplier set up a delivery service through DPD to selling meat boxes and deli boxes to customers.

The Preston-based supplier usually sell to  care homes, restaurants, pubs, nurseries,  hotels, and work canteens.

Sales have gone up about 10 per cent since introducing Farm2Fork, which sends deli boxes to people’s homes.