Spar Scotland wholesaler and retailer CJ Lang hosted a webinar for suppliers on Wednesday 10 June.
The wholesaler provided details on its progress over the last 12 months and outlined its future strategy.
Over 300 delegates took part in the online event, which was broken down into five sessions based on trading categories.
CJ Lang boss Colin McLean said: “We have gone through a positive transformation over the last couple of years and we wanted to share these results and our future plans with our supply base.
“Our suppliers have worked tirelessly with us over the past few months and we are very grateful for their continued support, particularly in these challenging times.
“Our number one priority is safety of our staff, customers and suppliers and everyone’s on-going support is very important to us.
“We have achieved a lot in the last twelve months, but we know we still have a lot to achieve. We are in our ‘back to basics’ phase in our five-year strategic growth plan but the results so far are very good. We are developing our relationships with suppliers. We want them to share their NPD with us and let us bring their products to market. We have the stores, the distribution infrastructure and the geographical coverage all over Scotland to allow suppliers to do just that.”
The company’s Finance Director Craig Tedford provided a business update: “Over the last 12 months Spar Scotland has grown both wholesale and retail sales achieving increases significantly above the Scottish market. Sales to independent customers have grown by 6% and retail like-for-like sales in company owned stores have grown by 7% as we develop both our customer and consumer offer.”
Trading and marketing updates came from recently appointed Trading Director Richard Collins and Marketing Manager Paula Middleton.
CJ Lang donated almost £10,000 over the last 12 weeks to local charities, community groups and foodbanks. Two SFA sponsorship deals, which launched in 2019, continue in 2020 and beyond.
