Bestways Group’s annual pre-tax profit increased by 44.7% to £267.1m in the year ending 30 June 2014.

The group’s wholesale business saw a 1.7% uplift in turnover to £2.38bn, with a pre-tax profit of £54.3m compared to £54.2m in 2013.

Best One and Xtra Local, its largest retail clubs, turned over £640m per annum, an increase of over 6.7% compared to 2013.

The group attributed the growth to a focus on three major areas in wholesale – retail symbol/club growth, online sales and foodservice distribution.

Digital has continued to grow with over 26,000 registered users on the wholesale websites. The group has launched a fully functional smartphone app, which it believes will change customer shopping behaviour. New technologies are currently in production for the channel such as geo-fencing and i-beacons.

Zameer Choudry, the group chief executive, said: “Despite a challenging business environment both in the UK and globally during the year under review, all the Group businesses continued to enhance their respective market share.

“We see challenges ahead of us both in UK and in Pakistan as the respective economies go through an economic stabilisation phase.”