News

Bestway Batleys is launching its delivered food and drink offering to the foodservice market which will be available from 1 September 2013.

Previously only limited to Scotland, Bestway Batleys will be launching the service through 17 specialist depots across the UK.

The team at Bestway Batleys say the new approach will focus on offering a ‘simpler, better’ service to its foodservice customers with an emphasis on fresh, meat, soft drinks and snacks in addition to a complete alcohol solution through its Drinks Express division.

All depots will showcase an ambient range, a full alcohol and non-alcohol range and will feature an in-house butchery expert. Operated by a specialist meat procurement team, each in-house facility will be managed by experienced traditional butchers offering bespoke cutting and trimming services. All meats are BPEX and EBLEX certified and can be cut to suit individual customer’s needs.

Martin Race, operations director for Batleys, with responsibility for foodservice development, commented: “The Bestway Batleys Group takes great pride in its heritage and experience that has been cultivated and developed over the years and we are really excited to launch this new proposition to the foodservice market. We’ve had continuous feedback over the years from customers asking us to create a viable foodservice solution in the rest of the UK. We pride ourselves in a clear and very transparent offer which spans the entire relationship from contracts to pricing and our experience in Scotland told us that we were ready to drive a national rollout, so we set the wheels in motion 12 months ago.

“We have developed a service for caterers and foodservice operators which gives them access to a comprehensive range of top-quality products and services which are competitively priced. Our new model is reinforced by a strong and dedicated national field sales, contract sales and central telesales teams, enabling our products to reach the hearts of kitchens across the UK via a timely and efficient infrastructure.”

Race added: “One of the key pieces of feedback that we had from caterers when we were doing research was the desperate need for price stability to do accurate budget and cash flow forecasting. This is why we’ve created ‘Price Hold Guarantee’ – a comprehensive series of promotions where caterers are guaranteed a fixed price for a 12-week period.

“We’re currently in the second round of the strategy and the feedback has been absolutely overwhelming. It tells us that we are delivering on what we set out to achieve with Bestway Batleys Foodservice: a customer-centric delivered wholesale proposition.”

The nationwide launch will be supported even further with market leading pricing across all categories, driven by a specialist purchasing team with a procurement power of £2.5b.

As part of the launch, the company has also launched a website www.bbfoodservice.co.uk. The site not only offers simple navigation for sector specific advice and product solutions alongside regular short and long term promotions, but also has an online ordering facility to make menu planning and delivery convenient.