Bestway is continuing to absorb the additional costs imposed by Nisa’s rising fuel levy to avoid passing it on to Costcutter retailers, it has told The Grocer.
It means the fuel levy for Costcutter retailers still stands at £4.88 since it was implemented on 28 March, despite Nisa increasing it twice since then.
Although Costcutter was bought by Bestway last year, its stores are still being supplied by the Co-op via the Nisa supply chain, an arrangement set to continue until 2026. As such, they are still subject to Nisa’s delivery charges.
Nisa first introduced a fuel levy in February, which was triggered by a “combined impact of Brexit, Covid-19, driver and raw material shortages, and in particular fuel and shipping cost increases”. Costcutter retailers were then hit by the delivery cost weeks later.
Nisa has since ramped it up, including to £9.77 in April, then to £13.43 earlier this month.
Bestway said, however, that it was “continuing to work very hard to mitigate passing on any additional costs at this time”.
The wholesaler is also still refunding the levy to Costcutter retailers who spend £7,500 a week this summer under its new Platinum Club membership.
The iniatitive was originally introduced to retailers spending an average of £17,500 a week, but the threshold was then lowered to help retailers manage rising operating costs.
