StarStock the online marketplace revolutionising the on-trade food and drink supply chain, is expanding its existing partnership with Morrisons to help operators across the UK fulfil their food and drink order requirements.
As part of a revised focus to support hospitality businesses, the platform has reduced its minimum order value with Morrisons to £95, at a time when other wholesalers have significantly increased their minimum order commitments, effectively pricing out some customers.
StarStock and Morrisons have also significantly increased the number of weekly delivery slots and added a raft of new products – from leading drinks brands through to Morrisons own fresh food range. The move is designed to help ease the ongoing challenges posed to pubs and hospitality operators by ongoing supply chain issues, labour shortages and gaps in the wholesale market.
StarStock announced its food partnership with Morrisons in September and, since then, has provided hospitality operators across the UK with direct access to more than 1,500 products from the retailer at competitive rates. An additional 300 new SKUs have now been added to the StarStock platform, including a wide range of classic pub and bar snacks like crisps and nuts, giving wet-led pubs the opportunity to utilise this service.
StarStock’s partnership with Morrisons gives pub, bar and restaurant operators across the UK direct, 24/7 access to products from Morrisons Market Street counters and its own brand range. It also provides access to branded items, including from drinks brands such as Asahi UK, Bacardi, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Britvic, Red Bull, Shepherd Neame, Theakston’s, Robinsons, Fever-Tree, Kopparberg and a growing range of regional brewers.
Commenting, Sam Ulph, Founder and CEO of the StarStock Group, said: “The industry continues to be squeezed really hard by the ongoing supply chain and labour shortage challenges, and our aim is to alleviate as much of the stress and strain associated with these challenges as possible. We are working to provide operators with what they need, when they need it, ahead of what’s set to be a busy festive season.
“Through our partnership with Morrisons we provide on-trade businesses with access to high-quality, competitively-priced food and drink and the reduction of our minimum order amount to just £95 (for Morrisons products) demonstrates that we’re committed to fulfilling as many orders as possible. This goes against the grain across the sector as many platforms are in fact increasing their minimum order amounts and even, in some cases, refusing to fulfil certain orders.
“The StarStock platform brings some long-overdue modernisation to the hospitality supply chain as, through ground-breaking partnerships like the one we now have in place with Morrisons, it enables operators to order fresh food directly, at a time that suits them, creating a next-generation marketplace for the on-trade sector.”
