Time Wholesale Services will rebrand as Time Wholesale, as it looks to return to a pure cash & carry model.
As part of the rebrand, the business will discontinue its delivered service and move away from its programme of store fit-outs.
The wholesaler had planned to reinstate the two services after a pause during the pandemic.
However, Time MD Sony Bihal told The Grocer it was now moving away from providing additional services in order to focus on the cash & carry business.
The business said the primary reason for simplifying the offering was the difficulty of managing cost in the current trading environment.
“We were thinking about putting salespeople back on the road again, but the cost of getting a team out there was too high,” said Bihal.
As part of the process of simplifying its offering, Time also stopped stocking its range of chilled products, with the exception of milk, late last year.
It cited inconsistent supply across the chilled and frozen sector, with around 30% of deliveries failing to complete in 2022.
Bihal said that long-term issues with poor availability would result in reputational damage if left unaddressed.
In addition, the total cost of running the chilled section in the Rainham depot had risen from around £75,000 to £150,000 in the past year, eating into margins, he said.
“We’ve got to a place now in London where we’re going to keep our model very basic,” said Bihal. “We’ll probably drop the word ‘services’ from our name and rebrand as Time Wholesale.
“I’m a big believer in doing what you say, I don’t want to send false images saying we’re going to come in and rebrand your store. It’s all about selling volume to independents now.”
Bihal said Time was still looking to expand beyond its existing depot and add a series of new sites across London over the next few years.
No comments yet