Hancocks Cash & Carry has today (Monday 18^th December) announced it will become the first confectionery specialist to offer a nationwide ‘Click and Collect’ service. The service will begin in the north of England, before being rolled out across their 20 Cash and Carry sites in the New Year.

Unrestricted by location, the ability for customers to switch between different Hancocks depots will allow them access to the level of stock required. Customers will use the Hancocks website (www.hancocks.co.uk) to place their order before being able to collect it at any of our 20 cash and carry locations.

IB Group, which includes Hancocks, Bobby’s and Bonds of London, has over 55,000 direct customers, excluding the major grocers and discounters, supported a c.150 strong sales team that distribute an offering of more than 5,000 confectionery products and other snacks/drinks.

IB Group CEO, Wayne Beedle, said, “Offering a nationwide click and collect service means that customers will no longer be confined by their location or have to wait on scheduled delivery slots to get their stock to their business 7 days a week.

Hancocks’ broad product range and deep customer base has added to Innovative Bites’ on-trend confectionery range to create an advantaged position in the confectionery market.

Our combined resources provide an unrivalled distribution network the confectionery market in the UK allowing the customer to be serviced in a way that suits their needs. With the addition of Bonds, they also offer their own brand products in addition to being the largest importer of international confectionary brands such as Hostess, Trolli and WarHeads.

Wayne added: “As the market leader, we are always focused on what we can do to help our customers and ways to make their business stronger. By combining the strength of our businesses, we can offer busy customers a seamless end-to-end service.

“We recognise that our customers are busy people with many pressures, not least their time. To support them we have invested in people and systems that continuously monitor stock carefully, so our customers can now see at a glance what they want and where they can get it. This means that customers that take advantage of our service are able to free up some of their time – an important advantage when you’re running a business.”

Established in 1962, Hancocks Cash and Carry boast the largest range of confectionery available in the UK with confectionery experts on hand in every depot. Over their 20 sites, they offer in excess of 5,000 branded and own label products with warehouses all of the UK, from Dundee to Portsmouth.

Innovative Bites is one of the UK’s largest wholesalers and is continuing to expand its business opportunities.