Unitas Wholesale has revealed that former Head of Retail at Nisa Victoria Lockie has joined the buying group as retail director.
Victoria brings many years of experience in the independent convenience sector, including 12 years leading the Nisa Retail field team supporting stores in the UK and Ireland. She is an ambassador for Diversity in Wholesale, Women in Wholesale, GroceryAid and WiHTL Women to Watch 2024. For many years she has heavily supported the Association of Convenience Stores campaigns and activities, including the recent Shopkind campaign.
This appointment reflects Unitas Wholesale’s investment and ambition to further grow its retail offer and capabilities. Victoria will be instrumental in the continued development of the Plan for Profit category management scheme, the group’s retail and wholesale promotional programmes, and the roll out of the Local Living own brand range.
Unitas Wholesale managing director John Kinney said: “We are delighted to have Victoria leading the next phase of the implementation of our retail strategy. She is the perfect choice to continue our growth in retail, supporting our members in building an attractive symbol group offering and expanding the reach of their retail clubs.”
“I am really excited to be joining Unitas,” said Victoria. “The group provides such a vital service to both independent wholesalers and retailers. It’s a tough time for independent retailers at the moment, and the promotions, category advice and value own brand range we have to offer are all vital to help our independent retailers compete in today’s marketplace.
“Unitas hosts some of the biggest, best, and importantly entrepreneurial wholesalers and I am looking forward to working with these members, in partnership with our suppliers, to drive our retail agenda forward.”
Unitas Wholesale’s Retail Plus members have enjoyed enhanced benefits over the last 18 months, taking advantage of the group’s ability to negotiate enhanced trading terms and strong promotional programmes by utilising its scale as the UK largest independent buying group. Members have outperformed the market in most key categories, resulting in record returns on their engagement in the centrally-negotiated schemes.
The group’s retail operation was recently praised by suppliers, who chose the Unitas Wholesale Support Centre as the best Retail Wholesaler in the 2024 Advantage Report.
Simon Hannah
