Foodservice wholesale group, Thomas Ridley has tackled 2020 with an agility and flexibility that has resulted in a positive impact on its business.
Well known as a key wholesaler to the foodservice and hospitality industries, at the start of the lockdown, the company saw a huge lift in takeaway products for its customers and a swing to households visiting its website and placing orders.
Quickly realising that individual shoppers have very different needs to the foodservice industry, the Thomas Ridley team set about ensuring that their digital offering could meet both opportunities.
Darren Osborn, eCommerce Director, describes the impact of the lockdown on the business, “To be honest, we were preparing for the worst, with schools, cafes and restaurants closed, we had to think quickly as to how we could continue to operate during the lockdown.
'After a day or two, we started to see a substantial uplift in our web traffic, sales of bread mix increasing in demand and new customers joining us who were obviously family households.
'Over the course of 2020, we’ve had weeks where we’ve had to process over 90,000 orders and sold 12,000 bags of bread flour, in just 7 days!
'Our foodservice customers have also been ordering lots of takeaway packaging, showing just how adaptable their businesses have been during this time.”