Food and drink wholesaler JW Filshill, one of Scotland’s oldest independent food and drink wholesalers, saw turnover remain robust – in line with the overall market trend – at £213 million for the year ending January 31, 2026.
Amid ongoing challenging market conditions, the fifth-generation business, based at Westway Park near Glasgow Airport, saw operating profit slightly down at £4.1m against £5.0m the previous year, the drop of £0.9m due to increases in employers’ national insurance contributions and the minimum wage. The company also invested heavily in product development relating to its growing Eldorado Tonic Wine brand.
However, profit before tax increased 72% from £4.9m to £8.4m, primarily due to the revaluation of its investment properties, in particular its former headquarters at Ainslie Avenue, Hillington, from where the business relocated in 2023.
Filshill, which supplies KeyStore convenience stores and independent retailers across Scotland and the north of England and also specialises in brand ownership and development, continued to deliver against a clearly defined corporate strategy and ambitions for the future, as well as driving efficiency across the business.
Keith Geddes, chief financial and operating officer, said: “We have continued to deliver against our clearly defined corporate strategy and ambitions and drive efficiency throughout our operation. This improved efficiency is more essential than ever given the increase in costs driven mainly by changes to fuel, living wage and employers’ national insurance costs.
“The directors are pleased with the company performance and are confident that profits will continue at a satisfactory level going forward.
“The long-term success of the company is central to everything we do. We invest heavily in long-term return projects to protect future revenue streams. This includes constantly updating our technology, equipment, and vehicle fleet on an ongoing basis – an approach that has resulted in greater efficiencies and customer satisfaction.”
Noting that Filshill continued to invest heavily in upskilling its employees to take full advantage of advancements in artificial intelligence, he said: “We will ensure that we make use of these tools across all areas of the business.
“We also continue to push forward with investment in other areas of technology such as the innovative use of data, Scope 3 emissions tracking software and industry-specific opportunities for our KeyStore customers in relation to, for example, electronic shelf-edge labels.”
Further discussing the company’s environmental commitments, Mr Geddes said: “During the year, our environmental team has continued working to reduce our carbon footprint and identify areas where we can positively influence a reduction in our carbon impact and work towards a net-zero emissions position.
“We have continued to incur additional operating cost to use hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) in place of diesel for most of our transport fleet and we have pushed to maximise the use of our electric fleet, and to learn and understand how best to use these vehicles, to further reduce our carbon footprint. We continue to engage and collaborate with a number of external bodies (both in the public and private sector) to share ideas and best practice.”
Mr Geddes added: “Our project to benchmark our Scope 3 emissions is ongoing and, while this has been difficult, we have continued to invest much time, effort, and money to do this. We have engaged with trade organisations the Scottish Wholesale Association and Food & Drink Wholesale UK and software suppliers to start to measure the carbon footprint of the thousands of products we buy and sell as well as the impact of packaging and staff travel.”
He noted the company measures C02 creation using the intensity ratio of grams per case delivered, stating: “We are pleased to report that this has declined by a further 51% on the previous year – we have therefore reduced this ratio by 68% over the last five years.”
Filshill, Mr Geddes said, continued to measure revenue, gross margin and operating profit as key financial indicators and monitor non-financial KPIs including staff measured performance and sales service levels, range achievements, unanswered telesales call, returned orders, and early warning date codes. “KPIs are reviewed weekly and monthly with all of our departments’ management collectively in order to provide full transparency across the business,” he noted.
In an independent retail market that remains highly competitive and challenging, he said the company “seeks to manage the principal risk of losing customers by aiming to deliver best-in-class customer service”, adding that any loss of support from key suppliers in terms of supply or credit is also a key risk.
Mr Geddes said: “To offset this, the group works hard to maintain strong partnership-based relationships with all suppliers and was again recently ranked number one by suppliers in an independent survey (Advantage Group Mirror report) across our key competitors for the 16th consecutive year. Availability of products remains more challenging than previously experienced, but we work very closely with our supply partners to minimise the challenges this creates.”
Recent inflation and increases in the cost of living, in particular increases in the cost of fuel and food and drink, continue to cause uncertainty for the company, staff, customers and suppliers, Mr Geddes pointed out, adding that legislation in the sector is also an “increasing risk but mitigated by close engagement with industry bodies”.
Pointing to the company’s ongoing engagement with its workforce on safety, health and wellbeing, in particular mental health, Mr Geddes added: “We have also engaged with customers to help promote mental health and wellbeing activities across our KeyStore customers as well as within our own team. The company currently has over 35 fully trained mental health first aiders and we continue to drive our safety-first culture as a cornerstone of everything we do.
“We care passionately about the health, safety and wellbeing of employees, and we work hard to minimise any risks and to provide a safe working environment. We encourage two-way communication with all our employees through several channels including regular formal appraisals, team briefings, directors’ briefings, ‘Have Your Say’ forums, and regular staff surveys and departmental listening groups.”
A long-time supporter of charities and good causes around its headquarters but also individual KeyStore shops across Scotland and the north of England, Filshill regards this support as a key pillar of its company strategy, along with building relationships with staff, customers and suppliers. “We are proud of our contribution to supporting our community,” Mr Geddes added.
“Reputation is particularly important to the directors and all decisions within the business are made within the framework of our key corporate values, and in particular our value of ‘Doing the right thing’.
