In January 2016, the Grocery Adjudicator, Christine Tacon, hauled Tesco over the coals and ordered it to introduce significant changes to practices and systems after finding Britain’s largest supermarket seriously breached a legally-binding Groceries Supply Code of Practice (the Code). Tesco Chief Executive Dave Lewis had earlier announced in October 2015 that smaller suppliers, who deliver up to £100,000 worth of products in a year, would be paid within 14 days with effect from June 2016.
Now, Waitrose has trumped this by announcing last week that it will be moving its payment terms for all UK small food producers to a maximum of 7 days. This sets an industry lead…
It will be interesting to see if Tesco chief executive, Dave Lewis now decides to respond by re-setting the payment lead for Britain’s biggest retailer…
Mark Williamson, Waitrose Commercial Director, said: “The internal review of how we pay our smallest suppliers was initiated because we wanted to make our good relationships with small suppliers even better by simplifying the payment process.”
One could now ask the question, what about John Lewis…?
Nevertheless, this is a welcome sign and comes not long after a report from trade credit insurer Euler Hermes stating that the number of overdue payments experienced by UK businesses reached a two-year high in the final quarter of 2015.
It is to be hoped that Anna Soubry’s recent sacking as Small Business Czar is not a sign of reduced focus on supporting the UK’s cash strapped SMEs…
