Food and drink wholesaler Booker is introducing a delivery fee for all its retailers from the end of February, it announced this week.
Starting Feb 28, the food and drink wholesaler will charge Premier and Family Shopper retailers £29.95 for each delivery, with unaffiliated stores paying £34.95.
The cost will not fluctuate regardless of the size of the order, although the minimum order of £1,000 continues to apply.
Other changes include changing the cut off time to place orders to 9am for next delivery.
In a meeting with NFRN representatives, the wholesaler said the past two years had been “demanding” for all UK businesses, including Booker, with inflation and increasing costs for drivers, vehicles and fuel all playing their part.
Booker told the NFRN it had “no option” but to start charging for deliveries and added that in order to maximise accuracy and availability it was changing the cut-off time to place orders to 9am for next-day delivery.
A Booker spokesperson said: “We take these changes very seriously and regrettably have been forced to take this difficult decision due to rising costs.”
Narinder Randhawa, national president of the NFRN, said: “We are grateful to Booker for keeping us apprised of the situation and we will explore with them ways of offsetting these extra costs.”
Booker’s latest move has left many retailers infuriated. Questions are also raised why similar delivery charges won’t be applicable to caterers.
While some retailers are reportedly threatening to leave, some are contemplating opting for click and collect through bigger supermarkets.
Noteworthy here is that Booker is now owned by Tesco.
Booker’s move comes weeks after small village shops called out the wholesaler’s condition of minimum order of £1,000 to have stock delivered.
Small community stores reportedly fear they could be driven out of business unless Booker Wholesale drops the minimum spending threshold – which does not take into account orders for tobacco.
“Our normal order is around £300 to £400 a week excluding cigarettes and tobacco which we don’t need much profit on,” Palnackie Village Shop Ltd chairman Susan Black told a local media outlet last month.
“We have a weekly delivery. Many other businesses are in a similar position to ours.”
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