CompareTheWholsaler Webpage

Price comparison site CompareTheWholesaler.com has relaunched online with an extended product range.

The site, which looks at case prices across several of the UK’s biggest wholesalers, features nearly 1,500 products ranging from big brands to artisanal producers.

Although the supplier list varies from product to product, prices are collected manually from Booker, Bestway, Batley, Palmer & Harvey, Landmark and Amazon.

To allow retailers to see how competitive their prices are, the site also features prices from Tesco and is set to add Asda later this month.

“The wholesale category is really behind the retail marketplace in terms of sophisticated online solutions,” CompareTheWholesaler.com founder Keith Robinson told The Grocer.

“Some of the major wholesalers have seen that transparency is a way forward and there are others who are a bit more reserved. However, we are sensing the spirit of transparency coming through, albeit slowly, but it is coming to the wholesale sector, which has to be a good thing. Maybe they’re being led by Amazon and what they’re up to.”

Robinson has not yet secured partnerships with any of the major wholesalers to compile prices. 

“We’ve had a couple of run-ins with the big wholesalers where they’ve kindly told us if we have an inaccurate price and that we should correct it immediately but that is about as engaged as we get with them,” said Robinson. 

The site has secured a partnership with wholesaler Cotswold Fayre to expand the range of premium and foodservice products on its site.

“Naively, we noticed we didn’t just have convenience stores registering on the site but pubs, cafés and restaurants. We realised we had forgotten about foodservice,” said Robinson.

“Cotswold Fayre ticks the box for the audience we have in that area.”