Scottish wholesaler reaps the benefits of investment
SCOTTISH wholesaler JW Filshill has posted a strong set of financial results for the year ending January 2024, reporting a rise in annual turnover.
The independent food and drink wholesaler has reported an annual turnover increase of 6% for the financial year, rising up to a total £215million.
These strong results for the wholesaler behind the KeyStore symbol come before an historic year for JW Fillshill as the firm will be set to celebrate its landmark 150th anniversary in 2025.
The firm made the move to its new Westway Park depot, near Glasgow Airport, in March 2023 and has since seen operating profit jump from £2.9million to £4.2million during the financial year to January 2024.
Filshill recorded a gross profit of £22.3million – up from £19.4million – while net assets increased to £21.6million, compared to £18.9million the previous year.
Keith Geddes, chief financial and operating officer, said: “The massive effort put in by all Filshill employees and the support we received from suppliers and customers was much appreciated.
“The new facility is a major step forward in delivering our planned growth and business improvements, allowing us to push forward in achieving the ambitious targets we have set for ourselves over the short, medium and long term.
“The investment in the new facility and other projects throughout the period has taken the level of investment in the future of the business to £6.6million over the last two years and demonstrates the commitment and confidence we have in our future.”
This success come off the back of a difficult time for the independent convenience sector, something which Filshill pointed to as being a key concern for the firm.
Geddes pointed to the ongoing inflation and increase in the cost of living that caused “uncertainty for the group, our staff, our customers and suppliers”.
Geddes said: “To offset this, the group works hard to maintain strong partnership-based relationships with all suppliers and was again recently ranked number one by suppliers in an independent survey – Advantage Group Mirror Report – across our key competitors for the 14th consecutive year.”
Given the backdrop of a worrying financial situation for everyone, the firm said it continued to make these investments with its partners but also with its staff members, working to support their mental health during stressful year.
And it’s this investment into staff mental health and continued charitable work that Simon Hannah, group chief executive at JW Filshill, reckons displays the wholesaler’s “safety-first culture”, which has helped with staff retention and recruitment during the financial year.
He said: “A number of new mental health first aiders have been added to our team but there has also been refresher training for those trained in previous years to maintain the high level of support available to the full team and to our KeyStore partners. The company currently has over 30 fully trained mental health first aiders.
“Engagement with charities and local support organisations around our Westway site but also in individual KeyStore customers’ neighbourhoods is targeted at areas identified through feedback sessions with staff and customers to maximise the support we give the Filshill team and maximise our engagement with the local community. We are proud of our contribution to supporting our community.
“Driving our safety-first culture remains a cornerstone of everything we do. This has been particularly important as the relocation of our distribution centre required all operational and support functions to be assessed and new safe working practices defined and trained out.
“Our workforce retention and ability to recruit has been positively impacted by these initiatives.”
