Savage & Whitten Wholesale was established in 2000 as a family-run business, which today is comprised of two companies, Savage & Whitten, founded 10 years ago by the merger of two longstanding Todays Group members, Newry Cash & Carry and J&E Whitten, and Independent Catering Services (ICS).

Mark Windebank, who previously worked in the textiles industry, and his business partner Jim Noble took over Savage & Whitten in October 2005. At the same time, Mark and the original owners of the company, Richard and John Whitten and Norman Savage, founded ICS to supply dry goods to the catering trade. Some indication of just how successful these moves have been can be judged from the considerable rise in turnover – from around £17 million in 2005 to over £40 million in 2009!

The companies have always been based in Newry but moves are in place to greatly expand the operations. Savage & Whitten has a 25,000ft2 warehouse, expanded last year to include a 5,000ft2 covered loading bay, while ICS is working out of 15,000ft2 of warehouse space. Savage & Whitten is to move to new larger premises, with 46,000ft2 of space as part of its plan to significantly improve and expand its range of services. What this will then mean is that ICS can move into the former Savage & Whitten premises and this will also allow ICS to add a chilled room in order to expand its services and product range. Currently, ICS operates a fleet that contains chilled vehicles but only delivers ambient foods and so in the future this will provide an extra string to its bow.

According to Mark Windebank, “We are firmly convinced that we have the best sales people in the country – traditionally in this sector the business has not been sales driven and while this is changing, we do believe that we are very much on the front foot in this respect. We manage both of our businesses using the Sanderson Swords system and we have expanded our business through the use of IT in areas such as sales order capture, radio frequency and business intelligence. As a member of the NISA-Today Group, with its £6 billion annual turnover, we can offer the value and range of a national distributor while still offering a local solution to all of our customers. We offer free delivery to all of Northern Ireland and many parts of Southern Ireland but, for those located outside of our personal delivery service, we have negotiated very competitive haulage rates.”

Looking at Savage & Whitten, it currently supplies to the smaller retail trade, to independent shop owners and garage forecourts. With the backing of the Todays Group, it is now operating symbol stores under the Todays banner and within the first six months there are already 26 in operation – 22 in Northern Ireland and 4 in the South of Ireland . The aim within the next couple of years is to increase this to around 100. ICS, which currently has more than 750 customers, supplies to hotels, small cafes, nursing homes, hospitals, etc. With the move into its larger premises and the addition of the chilled room, it is hoped that the rate of growth will accelerate. One of the changes will be to add a range of frozen and fresh food, chilled drinks, bacon, sausages, and hams in order to provide more of a one-stop shop basis for its customers.

Mark Windebank is convinced of one of the company’s major assets – its buying skills. “If you do not purchase correctly, then you cannot sell properly. We are very fortunate in that we have an extremely skilled buying team – Jim Noble and Caroline Mann for Savage & Whitten and Phillip Bell with Matthew Johnston for ICS. It has been the very calibre of these four individuals that has put us at the forefront of our business. Today, Savage & Whitten is the fastest growing wholesale distributor of grocery, confectionary, soft drinks and catering supplies on the island. Another key factor is in our management of order processing and delivery scheduling. Through the use of our IT system we can accurately meet the needs of our customers in terms of picking their orders and it is our intention to make 100% of our deliveries correct and on time – it does not help a chef if, in the middle of a busy Saturday evening, he has not got the right ingredients. Therefore it is vital that we achieve this target and maintain it!”

To contact Savage & Whitten, telephone 028 3026 3521.