Impulse wholesale group Sugro has pledged to support retailers through another challenging year with an arsenal of impartial merchandising advice and a keen focus on price.

MD Philip Jenkins urged retailers to visit the group’s website where they could access information on best-sellers, trends and merchandising.

“Inventory management will be vital this year, but retailers are promiscuous and far too easily swayed by manufacturers, meaning that they absorb much of their liquidity in speculative deals which prevent their best-sellers from having enough space. We, on the other hand, can give them impartial data,” he said.

“Retailers will need to stop thinking like buyers and start being retailers. We can help them to do that,” he added. “At the end of the day, Tesco Express is successful because its ranges are merchandised correctly and they can’t be influenced to change.”

Offering value for money would also remain key in 2012, Jenkins added, citing Sugro’s ‘Quidz In’ £1 lines, for which retailers must devote an aisle end.