Wholesale News June 2026 – TWC Monthly Feature with Tanya Pepin

The UK food and drink landscape is shifting fast – and for wholesalers, suppliers, and operators, understanding why channels are performing the way they are is now just as important as tracking the topline numbers.

In June’s Wholesale News feature, TWC’s Tanya Pepin lifts the lid on Channel Track, our new total‑market monitoring solution that blends consumer card spend from 10.2 million shoppers with real‑time recall of out‑of‑home food and drink purchases.

For the first time, we can follow a consumer journey seamlessly across hospitality and retail, revealing how people truly make decisions – not in channel silos, but in fluid, need‑based moments. This holistic view is already exposing the drivers behind channel growth and decline, and more importantly, the opportunities for operators to win back spend.

What’s Driving Channel Performance?

“For the first time we are able to follow a consumer journey across hospitality and retail, which means we are no longer looking at consumption in channel silos.”

Channel Track shows that consumers don’t think in terms of “retail” or “foodservice”. They decide what they want first, then choose the most convenient provider – whether that’s a supermarket, a symbol store, a café, a pub, or a fast‑food outlet. This fluidity means channels are competing for the same spend, and when one grows, it can be at the expense of another.

Retail: Indies & Symbols Under Pressure

Channel Track reveals a clear trend: independent and symbol convenience stores are losing share to supermarkets and supermarket convenience formats.

Key drivers include:

• Lower footfall and smaller baskets in indies and symbols
• Younger, male, lower‑affluence shoppers shifting spend into retail multiples
• Cost‑of‑living pressures hitting this demographic hardest
• Loyalty schemes accelerating switching
  • Only 11% of indie/symbol occasions involved loyalty mechanics
  • Versus 88% in retail multiples

This demographic shift is particularly damaging because younger DE males over‑index in categories already in long‑term decline, meaning the impact is compounded.

Hospitality: Growth Driven by Older, Affluent Consumers

Hospitality spend is rising overall, but largely due to inflation, not volume. Only independent operators are seeing an increase in transactions.

Why? Because independents attract a different demographic:

• Older, more affluent customers (55+)
• A 60:40 preference for independents over chains
• Strong performance in:
  • Restaurants
  • Coffee shops
  • Sandwich shops
  • Fast food
  • Pubs and bars (slower but still positive)

Channel Track also reveals that 1 in 3 customers spend more than intended, usually on:

• An extra drink
• A dessert or sweet treat

The top reasons?

• “I wanted to treat myself.”
• “I was tempted by something on the menu.”

For the 55+ cohort, health isn’t a major driver. Instead, they value:

• Location
• Convenience
• Value for money
• Consistency and trust
• Relaxed ambience and longer dwell times

Operators targeting this group should focus on upsell mechanics, comfortable environments, and reliable experiences rather than novelty.

The Power of Outlet-Level Insight

Tanya highlights that the real magic of Channel Track lies in its granularity. At outlet level, wholesalers and suppliers can finally answer questions such as:

• Does my customer mix align with my brand proposition?
• Which demographics do I over‑ or under‑trade with?
• How does footfall and spend vary across outlets in my area?
• Who are the top performers, and how far do customers travel to reach them?
• Which outlets best match the demographic a supplier wants to target?

This is where Channel Track becomes not just a reporting tool, but a growth engine, enabling targeted activation, smarter investment, and sharper execution.

Channel performance is no longer just about who’s up or down – it’s about understanding why. Channel Track gives wholesalers, suppliers, and operators a unified, consumer‑centric view of the market, revealing the motivations, behaviours, and demographic shifts that sit beneath topline trends.

With this new level of insight, the industry can finally move beyond channel silos and unlock targeted, sustainable growth across both retail and hospitality.

Contact us to find out how TWC can help your business.