Bestway Retail has removed its fuel levy charge (previously at £3.66 per delivery) for all mainland Costcutter stores as of 1st January 2025.
In addition, the firm announced an investment of over £2.5m to reduce the cost price of more than 11,000 best-selling branded products across all categories.
The move is designed to help retailers make more margin, whilst enabling them to better compete with large multiple convenience operators by driving footfall and customer loyalty.
Managing Director for Bestway Wholesale, Dawood Pervez, said:
“After Brexit, came Covid… and now we have increases to National Insurance and National Living Wage thresholds coming into play. There’s no question this will impact on retailers at a point when it’s clear that consumers will have less money in their pockets due to continuing inflation and slower than anticipated reductions in interest rates.
“We’ve listened to our retailers as to what is most important to them and are looking to the months’ ahead and the challenges that they face – and we’re acting now to invest in their future. In 2024 we paid out over £10m in rebates to Costcutter retailers, therefore we want to ensure that everyone is maximising the full benefit of this profit-driving scheme.
“It doesn’t stop there. Our vision for 2025 is to continue to co-invest in retailers’ businesses via refits and store modernisation plans.
“We’re also embracing the New Year with fresh investment in a wider sense to support growth both for our retailers and our own business. This includes a focus on our leadership team through investing in people, investment in leading edge technology and services, and through working closely with our supply partners to maintain the competitive edge that we are proud to offer our customers”.
Pervez added: “We’re 100% committed to our loyal retailers’ success and believe that ‘together we are stronger’ if we face the challenges the industry is experiencing with a shared approach.“
