Parfetts says it is marking a new chapter for the employee-owned wholesaler with plans to relaunch as Go Local Wholesale, and to increase the number of forecourts taking its fascias from 32 to 100 in the next two years.
This is part of ambitious plans to grow from 2,000 to 3,000 sites, with 500 outlets in the pipeline, and to boost turnover from £807m to £1bn in the next two years.
From January, the rebrand will end a 40-year connection to the Parfetts family who set up the Stockport-based firm in 1980.
The founding Parfetts family sold its 55% stake to an employee trust board in 2008, later becoming 100% company-owned in 2018, with the final family member to leave the business, Steve Parfett, retiring as chairman that same year.
The aim is now to align the company name with the Go Local symbol estate, with includes Go Local Extra, Go Local, The Local, and Shop & Go, reflecting its growth “from a regional cash-and-carry operator to national wholesaler and symbol operator”.
Most of the 32 forecourts currently signed up to the business – including operators Stuart Riding, Muresh Seevaratnam and Sajikumar Muthiah – have adorned their shops with the Shop & Go brand, which focuses on impulse and food to go categories.
And as the brand progresses the team expects to “have more conversations” with operators with a greater number of sites, supported by its network of nine depots from the south coast in Southampton to Middlesbrough in the north east of England.
Joint managing director Guy Swindell says: “We have grown strongly in recent years, but this is just the start.”
He adds: “We are investing in better value, competitive pricing, availability, delivery, and more in-store support, while listening closely to retailers about what they need from us.
“Go Local Wholesale better reflects who we are today and where we are going. We want to grow nationally, but we will do that by staying close to our customers, strengthening our offer and making it as easy as possible for independent retailers to do business with us.”
Joint managing director Noel Robinson adds: “Being an employee-owned business is one of the things that makes Go Local Wholesale special. We are proud of our history, but we are no longer family-owned.
“We don’t have any shareholders in the stock market who want to take dividends out of the business. We can invest in our colleagues and customers in a way no other wholesaler can do, and this is our gold dust.”
