Wholesale & Me: Time to Appreciate Wholesale
Press release - Competitiveness & Single Market
27 February 2025
EuroCommerce, representing the retail and wholesale sector in Europe, launched today a campaign called #AppreciateWholesale to create awareness and ensure a better understanding of the role wholesale plays in daily lives.
Christel Delberghe, Director General for EuroCommerce, said, “Wholesale is working behind the scenes to support other businesses from your local restaurant or builder to the pharmacy where you pick up your prescriptions. Often unseen, wholesale’s role needs to be appreciated by policymakers so businesses can concentrate on improving the services they provide to make our daily lives run smoothly. Too often wholesalers find themselves overburdened by rules, sometimes unintentionally as what they do is misunderstood.”
The #AppreciateWholesale campaign offers the facts and aims to help policymakers understand how wholesale is connected with EU citizen’s daily life, illustrated through a ‘peak behind the scenes’. Wholesale is a crucial link between manufacturers, crafts and other services, which enable consumers to enjoy a variety of options for their meals, shampoos, medicines and other products. Wholesalers reduce risks, ensure a stable supply of goods in and outside the EU, offer advice and customisation, and help finance the many businesses, both small and large, that rely on that service. Wholesale consists of 1.6 million enterprises – 99% of which are micro-businesses and SMEs - employs around 10 million employees representing 6% of total EU employment, contributes to 5.1% of the EU’s GDP and has an annual turnover of €6,5 trillion, making it an invisible giant in the EU economy.
In the last few years, wholesale’s processes, value and needs have not been understood leading to a mismatch of legislative ambition and practicability. The Commission’s omnibus proposal is just one example that will simplify and harmonise the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. This is critical to relieve the many SME wholesalers indirectly overburdened by data collection requirements for reporting purposes. EuroCommerce is hopeful that the #AppreciateWholesale campaign will help wholesale services be better understood to avoid proposals like the Regulation on combatting late payments that undermines one of the key services wholesalers provide to their business customers – helping them with finance to manage their cashflow.
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The campaign link: Support Europe’s Wholesalers - EuroCommerce