Sometimes things work… but they’re quietly costing you more than you realise.

That was the situation at R D Johns Foodservice, one of the South‑West’s fastest‑growing independent food wholesalers.

No big problems. No complaints. Just a feeling that things could be sharper.

A growing business with legacy cash processes

From its roots as a family butcher in Devon, R D Johns has grown into an £80m+ business, supplying more than 5,500 product lines to hospitality, education, healthcare and retail customers across the region. The business moves quickly, supports customers brilliantly, and scales with confidence.

But like many wholesalers, cash handling hadn’t evolved at the same pace as the business.

“It worked… but at a hidden cost”

When Richard Bradley and Martin Smith from acceptcards® first spoke with Faye Brooks and the team at R D Johns, there wasn’t a single obvious issue to fix.

Cash processes were familiar, they’d always been done that way and technically they worked so on the face of it there was nothing to see here.

Across multiple depots, though, the reality looked like this:

• Daily manual cash counting
• Time spent preparing banking or CIT collections
• Waiting 2–3 days (sometimes longer) for funds to clear
• Limited real‑time visibility of cash across sites

Individually, these things didn’t feel major, but together, they quietly tied up time, cash, and working capital, and that’s often where the biggest opportunity sits, in the things we’ve stopped questioning as they are just there.

The acceptcards® approach

As the UK’s largest independent payments broker, we don’t just review card charges. We look at the entire payments picture, we look to find friction/ pain points, risk and cost that have been accepted as the norm, the costs people think of as the price of doing business.

After understanding how R D Johns operates day‑to‑day, Richard and Martin worked closely with Faye to explore how cash could be:

• Credited faster
• Handled more securely
• Managed with less admin
• Visible in real time

The answer wasn’t ripping everything out and starting again. It was modernising cash, without disrupting the business.

The solution: smarter, faster cash management

Working with our partner Retail365, R D Johns rolled out a digital cash management solution across its depots.

✅ Smart safes at depot level

Cash is now:

• Counted automatically
• Validated instantly
• Recorded the moment it’s deposited

No more end‑of‑day manual counting.

✅ Same‑day credit

Instead of waiting days for cash to clear:

• Cash deposited before cut‑off is credited the same day
• Monday’s takings are available by Tuesday morning

A simple change but a massive shift for cash flow.

✅ Full indemnity from deposit

From the moment cash enters the safe:

• It’s fully insured
• Risk of loss, theft or discrepancy is removed

✅ Managed cash‑in‑transit (CIT)

• No multiple contracts
• Collections aligned to real volumes
• Less admin and operational hassle

✅ Real‑time visibility

The finance team now has:

• Live cash positions across all depots
• Better control and forecasting
• No reliance on delayed reporting

The impact (The results were immediate and measurable)

⏱ 20–25 hours saved per week across depots – 💷 £40k–£60k improvement in rolling working capital – 📉 Reduced CIT and admin costs – 🔒 Significantly lower cash risk

What Faye Brooks said

“We had never fully added up the true cost of our cash handling, the staff time, the delays, the working capital tied up. When we did, it was bigger than expected. The implementation was straightforward, and our team were comfortable within days. No disruption, no risk, just a better way of working.”

Why this matters

R D Johns isn’t unique, across wholesale and hospitality, many businesses still rely on:

• Manual cash counting
• Delayed bank clearing
• Fixed‑cost CIT contracts
• Limited visibility

It works but it quietly drains efficiency and profits, most businesses don’t understand the true cost of cash and even fewer realise how easily it can be improved.

The acceptcards® view

This is exactly why we encourage businesses to review the full payments journey, not just card rates. When card and cash are looked at together, opportunities appear.

Final thought

Most businesses regularly review their card payments. Very few ever review their cash, from our experience, that’s often where the fastest wins are found.

Let’s talk

If you manage cash across multiple sites or just want a sense‑check Richard, Martin and the team are always happy to take a look. No pressure. No obligation, either we find efficiencies or we give you peace of mind your set up is the best it can be, that’s got to be worth a conversation, right?