Unitas Chief Operating Officer David Cooke shares how the group is outperforming the market and looking to deliver even more for members and suppliers in 2026

As the UK’s largest wholesale buying group, Unitas is outperforming the market, offering scale, efficiency and effectiveness for our members and suppliers. With 125 members, which includes 14 of The Grocer’s Big 30 Wholesalers, we provide brand owners with an unrivalled reach into more than 150,000 retail, foodservice and on-trade outlets.

Our members and supplier partners have seen first-hand how Unitas’s incredible scale and commitment to service is delivering incremental benefits for wholesalers, and measurable return on investment for suppliers. We leverage our unbeatable buying power to offer our members the best trading terms and conditions available and, unlike other buying groups, every penny of those centrally negotiated terms goes directly to wholesaler members, who are the group’s sole owners.

WE ARE NOT STOPPING THERE…

In 2026, our members are investing more into their businesses than ever before to increase distribution, drive volume and build genuine momentum across wholesale, retail and foodservice channels.

As a group, we have a laser focus on driving execution at scale as we move from joint business plans to a new strategic partnership model which will enable us to build brands and unlock huge growth potential for all.

At our annual trade show, connect26, in Liverpool in March, we announced our plans to overhaul our existing services to deliver stronger engagement platforms that will drive execution all the way to the consumer. We know that their priority is measurable execution, so this is our priority too.

Working with suppliers and our members, we have assessed what works well, such as link deals, bulk deals and NPD activation, and we are building on those foundations, driven by industry innovation and our members’ expertise. We will be launching a raft of new initiatives including One Week Special promotions, exclusive pack formats for NPD, pricemarked pack promotions and bespoke core range guides for out-of-home channels.

We are launching virtual brand days to provide suppliers with the opportunity to present brand plans to all Unitas members at Winning with Unitas How the highest-performing suppliers worked with Unitas to deliver outstanding results the same time, and following the successful launch of our groundbreaking Supplier Marketing Clinic in November, we are extending this to our members to benefit their marketing teams.

We are also transforming Plan for Profit, the toolkit for independent retailers, based on our biggest-ever research project which is underway with wholesalers, suppliers and more than 300 independent retailers.

To support all of these plans, we have also created a brand-new supplier forum to explore strategic growth opportunities, and our new brand-building playbook, Winning with Unitas, helps suppliers to navigate and unlock powerful activation opportunities right across the group.

There is no doubt that our collective scale and strength delivers results, but it is also our agility, pace and innovation that sets us apart, so work with Unitas, and we will win together.