Chilled food manufacturer and wholesaler Camelot Foods has joined buying group Landmark Wholesale.

The Crawley-based Camelot currently delivers to 520 stores and seven wholesalers. It now hopes to expand its customer base to other Landmark members and the Lifestyle Express stores they supply.

Camelot, which has annual revenues of £4.5m, harbours ambitious growth plans. These include opening its own cash & carry next to its warehouse and expanding into confectionery, snack foods and soft drinks.

The news comes after Landmark boosted its ranks by recruiting Northern Irish wholesaler Drinks Inc in May. However, it lost Bellevue as a member when the latter was bought by Bestway in June and will lose Elbrook at the end of 2010. It currently has 31 members.

This week Landmark reported sales last month were up 12.4% on last August and up 9.5% over the past year as a whole. Licensed products showed the biggest increase, with sales up 26.3% in August, boosted by its new wine brands, La Flamenca and The Narrows, and the new roll-your-own tobacco brand No3.

"We have worked hard to put together a great marketing programme with quality promotions; we've got fantastic own-brand ranges; and the industry-leading Lifestyle Express retail fascia group," said Landmark managing director Martin Williams.

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