NBC Appoints Jo Wrate as Member Director, Effective Immediately

National Buying Consortium (NBC) has appointed Jo Wrate as member director with immediate effect, adding a shareholder-side voice to a buying group whose leverage depends entirely on how well supplier terms track what members actually need.

The move matters because of where Wrate sits. She is trading director at VSL Trade, where she develops the FMCG business — working with suppliers and customers to grow the product range, build partnerships and find new commercial opportunities. In plain terms: she negotiates from the same side of the table as NBC's members. Now she also helps govern the group that negotiates for them.

Kevin Jopson, NBC Chairman, said: "We're delighted to welcome Jo as Member Director. Our members are at the heart of NBC, and this role helps ensure their voices shape the group's future. We look forward to working with Jo to strengthen our supplier partnerships and support our members as we grow together."

What does the role actually change?

NBC frames the appointment as governance plumbing, but the substance is channel power. Buying groups live or die on rebate capture and terms that match member turnover. The member director role exists to keep the group honest on both counts — making sure shareholder interests get represented and considered as NBC develops supplier relationships and responds to member requirements.

That is a feedback loop, not a veto. Wrate will:

• Support NBC's leadership team day to day
• Share members' views and concerns upward
• Offer feedback on the group's plans and supplier relationships
• Attend board meetings
• Join events that bring suppliers and members together

For member shareholders, the practical gain is proximity. Their concerns now travel to the board through someone who buys and sells FMCG for a living, rather than through management summaries.

For suppliers, the signal cuts both ways. A member director with FMCG commercial depth will scrutinise whether listed ranges and deal structures reflect what members can actually move through the depot and the till — which can accelerate range reviews when they don't.

Who is Jo Wrate?

Her CV spans all three sides of the FMCG channel, which is the point of the hire. Wrate has held roles at:

• Müller Dairy — manufacturing
• Kerry Foods — manufacturing
• Poundland — retail
• A.F. Blakemore — wholesale and retail

That combination is rare at board level. She has seen how suppliers build volume plans, how a value retailer pushes turnover, and how a wholesaler services independent trade. NBC members sit at the end of that chain, and Wrate has worked every link leading to them.

At VSL Trade she carries direct P&L-style responsibility for growing an FMCG range with suppliers and customers. She knows which partnerships deliver margin and which deliver slide decks.

Why buying groups formalise member representation

The structural logic is straightforward. A consortium negotiates as one entity, but its shareholders are independent businesses with different formats, different turnover profiles and different customer bases. As the group scales its supplier relationships, the gap between what headquarters negotiates and what members can execute widens unless someone carries their voice into the room.

Jopson's language points in that direction: the role "helps ensure their voices shape the group's future," and he ties it explicitly to strengthening supplier partnerships and supporting members "as we grow together." Growth here means bigger combined volume and deeper supplier terms — and the member director is the check that the two stay connected.

What comes next

Wrate takes the seat with immediate effect, so her first measurable imprint will come in the board cycle: how member feedback shifts supplier plans, and whether NBC's recent tooling push — including its DRS planning tool launched earlier — gets adopted on the ground.

Watch the supplier events on her calendar. Those are where member concerns meet supplier commitments face to face, and where this appointment either changes terms or stays ceremonial.