Dhamecha is ‘reviewing’ its plans to charge shop owners for paying with business cards following a major protest at its Hayes cash and carry on Friday 13 June.

The uproar was sparked by plans to charge 1.25% on business credit card transactions, 0.7% on Business Mastercard debit cards and 0.2% on Business Visa Cards, with the latter capped at £2.50, from July onwards.

One video of the protest shared with Better Retailing showed at least 50 retailers gathered outside the depot. Retailers are reported to have picked their usual purchases from shelves in depot before leaving their trolleys at the checkout in protest.

Responding to the protests and negative feedback to the charges, a statement from Dhamecha’s directors seen by Better Retailing on 16 June stated: “We value your feedback and are in the process of reviewing the proposed rates… Whilst our peers have stopped card payments or raised prices, we believe a clear handling fee for certain payment methods is the fairest option.”

Dhamecha’s statement promised a ‘final fee structure’ would be revealed by 22 June.

‘A shop owner visiting the depot at the time of the protest had told Better Retailing: “There are retailers outside protesting here about the decision to charge a fee for business card payments. Dhamecha says its necessary due to the high charges they pay on these transactions, but a lot of shop owners believe it’s not justified.”

A Facebook event created by Hayes shop owner Raj Singh titled “Boycott Dhamecha! Say No to unfair charges” urged stores to attend the depot at 3pm on 13 June.

EXCLUSIVE: Dhamecha to introduce business credit and debit card charges

A statement from Singh read: “As if running a business wasn’t hard enough, now we have to factor in an extra charge just to do our essential cash and carry shopping. This isn’t just unfair, it’s a direct hit to our already tight margins.

What’s even more frustrating is their ‘solution’. They’ll tell you to download and use their app to avoid the fee. This isn’t about convenience, it’s about forcing us onto their platform and into their ecosystem. This predatory practice needs to stop.”

When the introduction of a charge by Dhamecha was first reported by Better Retailing last month, the company’s operations director Garry Jarvis stated the charge was necessary ‘due to increasing card acquiring costs over the recent past.’

“We are encouraging our customers to pay through the Dhamecha Mobile App which incurs no fees and rewards customers with special discounts on key lines,” he concluded.

Dhamecha Hayes branch customer Ravi Raveendran, owner of Colombo Mini-Mart in Hounslow, London praised the ‘strong sense of community’ among the protesting retailers and called for government action over the ‘unfair’ card processing fees faced by both retailers and wholesalers.

Speaking to Better Retailing last month, some store owners expressed sympathy with Dhamecha, highlighting the costs of accepting company cards in their own stores and Dhamecha’s competitive stock prices. One shop owner commented: “Its all thanks to these reward credit cards that people use to pay for their holidays. If your card company is going to charge the wholesaler 3% per transaction they are obviously gonna lay the cost on you or raise their prices.”

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