Kitwave Wholesale Group has acquired First Choice Foodservice, a Staffordshire-based distributor that has spent recent years converting itself from a traditional cash and carry operator into a delivered foodservice business.

The deal adds another regional player to Kitwave's foodservice division, which already includes Creed, Total, West Country, Fife Creamery and Charles Saunders Foodservice. Kitwave disclosed no purchase price and no revenue figures for the transaction, so the financial scale of the acquisition remains unquantified. What is disclosed is the operational logic: First Choice keeps its depot, its operations, its sales and head office teams, and its brand.

That continuity matters in UK foodservice distribution, where the asset being bought is often the customer relationship rather than the warehouse. Managing director Steve Ainger stays in post, and the third-generation family leadership remains embedded. Sophie Ainger continues as Marketing Manager, and Michael Ainger continues to support the business in buying. Keeping the buying function local suggests Kitwave wants to preserve supplier relationships and local pricing knowledge even as it folds the company into a national platform.

First Choice will also retain its membership of the Country Range Group, the buying and marketing alliance that gives independent regional distributors leverage against national broadline competitors. Kitwave has left that affiliation in place rather than migrating First Choice onto its own group purchasing — a signal that it values the existing channel economics over immediate integration synergies.

A calculated model shift

The acquisition target itself is the product of a deliberate strategic repositioning. Under Steve Ainger, First Choice moved away from cash and carry — a format under structural pressure as hospitality customers increasingly demand delivered, credited trade — toward a delivered foodservice model. The company has previously reported £15m in growth over a decade in foodservice, a figure that indicates the scale of the regional business Kitwave is absorbing, though no current revenue was disclosed with this deal.

For distributors, that shift from depot-based to delivered trade typically trades asset intensity for route density: more vehicles and drivers, but deeper share of a customer's spend and better retention. Kitwave's chief executive, Ben Maxted, explicitly flagged that evolution as part of the attraction, calling the transformation "particularly impressive" and citing "strong alignment" with the group's ambitions for its foodservice division.

"First Choice has built a strong reputation through its customer-focused approach, experienced team and commitment to service," Maxted said. "Its evolution in recent years from a traditional cash and carry business into a growing delivered foodservice operation is particularly impressive, and there is a strong alignment between the business and our ambitions for the foodservice division."

Consolidation economics

Kitwave, which operates across foodservice, retail, vending and licensed trade channels, has built its growth story on exactly this kind of bolt-on: acquire a regional distributor, keep the local brand and management, and gain scale in purchasing, logistics and back-office functions at group level. Whether First Choice's gross margins improve under Kitwave ownership will depend on how much buying leverage the group can pass through without disrupting the Country Range relationships the company is keeping.

Ainger framed the sale in generational terms. "First Choice has always been a family business at heart. My father Eddie, and my uncles Graham and Arthur, built the company around hard work, strong relationships and a real commitment to looking after our customers. Those principles have remained central to the business throughout its development," he said.

"Joining Kitwave represents an exciting new chapter for First Choice. It gives the business the scale, investment and support to continue its growth journey, while building on the foundations laid by my father and uncles, and retaining the people, culture and customer-focused approach that have made First Choice what it is today," Ainger continued.

Kitwave said the move supports First Choice's long-term growth ambitions while retaining the people, relationships, culture and values that underpinned the business. That is an assertion rather than a measured outcome, and distributors watching the UK market will judge it against retention of First Choice's customer base over the coming quarters.

The transaction continues the steady consolidation of independent UK foodservice distribution into fewer, larger groups. With First Choice trading on under its own name and inside its existing buying alliance, the near-term risk to customers is minimal; the longer-term test is whether Kitwave's group scale converts into tangible advantages in price, availability and service for a regional customer base.