Around 400 people attended FWD Live 2026 this year, one of the biggest turnouts the conference has seen, and that probably says something about the climate the sector finds itself in. When the trading environment gets complicated, people want to be in the room.
Matt and Gav from our team were there and came away with both a lot to think about and a lot to share.
The word of the day was resilience
Every speaker touched on it, and not as a buzzword. It felt more like an honest acknowledgement that the next few years are going to ask a lot of the sector, and the businesses that come through it well will be the ones that have thought carefully about what they’re up against.
Catherine Morgan from DGA set the tone early, identifying three forces shaping the current trading environment: geopolitical instability, economic stagnation and AI. None of these topics is new, but the combination of all three landing at the same time is creating a level of complexity that wholesalers haven’t had to navigate in quite this way before.
The supply chain is under real pressure
Daniel Zeichner, former Minister for Food and Chair of the FWD Food Resilience Commission, spoke about the fragility of the UK food system in a way that was genuinely sobering. The UK imports almost 40% of its food, which means supply security is heavily influenced by forces outside anyone’s direct control, and global conflict, trade tariffs, and cost-of-living pressures are all feeding into a picture that requires wholesalers to think carefully about where their vulnerabilities sit.
What came through clearly was the role wholesalers played during Covid, quietly keeping care homes, schools and hospitals supplied when much of the wider economy had shut down. That contribution doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves, but it’s a powerful reminder of why supply chain resilience matters at a national level, not just a commercial one.
Cybercrime is no longer a background risk
If there was one topic that sharpened the room’s attention, it was cybersecurity. Paul Gerrard from Co-op gave one of the most candid accounts of a cyber attack we’ve heard at an industry event. The Co-op attack in April 2025 caused real operational disruption, with stores facing stock availability issues and some services reverting to paper-based processes almost overnight, which gives you a sense of just how quickly things can unravel.
The message was clear: no business is immune, and expecting it won’t happen to you isn’t a strategy. What was particularly striking was that Co-op’s leadership team proactively alerted competitor retailers to how the attack happened so they could protect themselves. That kind of openness under pressure says a lot about the sector.
Tom Gittens reinforced the point in his closing remarks. Cyber risk isn’t going away, and the businesses treating it as a priority now will be in a much stronger position when, rather than if, something happens.
Growth is still possible, but it requires smarter thinking
Matt Ryan from Barclays painted a picture that was difficult but not without opportunity. Cost headwinds are real, including National Insurance increases, minimum wage requirements and food price inflation, and organic growth is harder to come by than it was. The businesses navigating it well tend to be the ones willing to look at consolidation, M&A and product development rather than waiting for conditions to improve.
AI came up repeatedly as a tool that can genuinely help, particularly in stock management, forecasting and reducing manual work, though the disruption it’s creating in the workplace is something businesses will need to manage thoughtfully alongside the opportunity. Consumer behaviour is also shifting in ways that are harder to predict than usual, including the emerging impact of weight loss medications on what and how much people eat out.
What BCP took away from the day
The urgency behind these themes feels different to previous years. Supply chains are under more pressure, cyber threats are more sophisticated, growth is harder to generate and consumer behaviour is shifting in ways that require real attention rather than a wait-and-see approach.
What connects all of it is the need for wholesale businesses to have better visibility, better information and better-connected operations. The businesses that know what’s happening across their supply chain in real time, that can respond quickly when something goes wrong and aren’t spending half the day chasing information that should just be there, are the ones best placed to navigate what’s coming.
That’s exactly what BCP works with wholesale businesses to build, and if any of the themes from FWD Live 2026 are conversations you’re already having internally, we’d love to be part of them.