So it looks like after all the talking, it's going to happen - the government is to push ahead with plans for a supermarket ombudsman under the Office of Fair Trading.
“We want to make sure large retailers can't abuse their power by transferring excessive risks or unexpected costs onto their suppliers,” said the Consumer Minister Edward Davey (pictured above).
A welcome move ? For suppliers, it would seem so - with the Food and Drink Federation giving the proposal an immediate ringing endorsement. As for the retailers, their response, maybe a little cynically, is predictable :
“An ‘adjudicator’ will just add unnecessary costs,” said Stephen Robertson of the British Retail Consortium.
Maybe the memories of government ministers are still fresh, well, fresher than the milk would be by now, three years on, of the infamous "price fixing" debacle where supermarkets were given hefty fines after an Office of Fare Trading probe into milk prices.
Of course, any move to remove "anti-competitive" practice is welcome. But what about when we start to edge into the margins of the grey area of collaboration between retailer and supplier involved in a close category management partnership.
Can you be "Category Captain" and, at the same time as you draw a salary from your company, engage in a collaborative strategic process with your buyer which is totally "competitive" ? Of course, such a relationship always should be - but is this an area where the ideals and the reality sometimes diverge, and is best dealt with by a bit of hand-waving, embarrassed coughing, and moving the conversation onto another topic ? Thoughts ?
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