A wind of change is blowing through the £24bn wholesaling industry. And it was change definitely for the better, said FWD director general Alan Toft. He said the industry had undergone "a most dramatic transformation" in the past 12 months. In particular, he said, FWD members were enjoying growth ­ despite the ending of forestalling on tobacco and higher operating costs. Toft harked back to last year's conference which he said was marked by the skirmishing between some wholesalers and suppliers. "I will not pretend every wound has healed but that the wind of change has brought with it a new atmosphere of cool reflection and a new kind of wholesaling." He added: "There's a fair wind blowing through wholesaling and it is blowing away the persecution complex once the wholesaler's trademark." Toft said more wholesalers and suppliers were finding new ways of working together. He highlighted the success of the Take Home Blueprint and said this was encouraging suppliers to adopt its broad principles and work with wholesalers to develop other categories. Toft said there was still much work to be done by wholesalers and suppliers to reduce the cost of serving the market ­ with service levels a particular bone of contention. Nevertheless, he said the industry's confidence was the best it had been for more than a decade. And he challenged suppliers to "stop tacking and get your sail full of our wind of change". l Collaboration through the use of new technology was a key theme of the conference. Members of the OFSCI initiative urged more wholesalers and suppliers to help the foodservice industry unlock a £450m opportunity to cut costs. And Booker explained how it was committed to electronic trading with suppliers. Its 250 biggest suppliers were using EDI while its 600 smaller suppliers were switching to a low cost web solution for invoicing. {{NEWS }}