Bestway Retail has announced the removal of the fuel levy charge (previously at £3.66 per delivery) for all mainland Costcutter stores for deliveries made on, or after Jan 1.
In addition to lifting the fuel levy charge, Bestway has also led the market in announcing an impressive investment of more than £2.5 million to reduce the cost price of more than 11,000 best-selling branded products across all categories.
The company says this move has two core objectives - firstly to enable its retailers to make more margin and secondly, critically, to help them maintain their competitiveness in the market.
The move is designed to help the retailers drive footfall and customer loyalty by focusing on best-selling products, ensuring that the prices are competitive against the large Multiple Convenience operators, and will continue to encourage shoppers to buy locally in a very competitive market.
Managing Director for Bestway Wholesale, Dawood Pervez, has reinforced that the above investment is all about supporting retailers as the nation approaches changes to the Minimum Wage threshold alongside upcoming National Insurance increases set for April 2025:
“After Brexit, came Covid and now we have increases to National Insurance and National Living Wage thresholds coming into play. There’s no question this will impact on retailers at a point when it’s clear that consumers will have less money in their pockets due to continuing inflation and slower than anticipated reductions in interest rates.
“We’ve listened to our retailers as to what is most important to them and are looking to the months’ ahead and the challenges that they face - and we’re acting now to invest in their future.
"In 2024 we paid out over £10m in rebates to Costcutter retailers, therefore we want to ensure that everyone is maximising the full benefit of this profit driving scheme.
“It doesn’t stop there. Our vision for 2025 is to continue to co-invest in retailers’ businesses via refits and store modernisation plans.
“We’re also embracing the New Year with fresh investment in a wider sense to support growth both for our retailers and our own business.
"This includes a focus on our leadership team through investing in people, investment in leading edge technology and services, and through working closely with our supply partners to maintain the competitive edge that we are proud to offer our customers”.
Costcutter’s retailers have welcomed the move, saying that it will help their businesses at a time when help is needed.
Pervez concluded, “We are 100 per cent committed to our loyal retailers’ success and believe that ‘together we are stronger’ if we face the challenges the industry is experiencing with a shared approach."
