Grocery Guru Episode #32: Preliminary GSCOP Survey Results & Sainsbury's Range Reset

Join Andrew Grant and Darren A. Smith in the thirty-second episode of the Grocery Guru. They discuss the preliminary results of the latest GSCOP supplier survey, whilst the announcement of the Groceries Code Adjudicator's concern about Sainsbury's range reset and how they are dealing with their suppliers.

You Can View the Full Preliminary GSCOP Survey Results Transcript Below

Darren A. Smith:

Hello, and welcome to episode 32 of The Grocery Guru. We are here with that guru. That is Andrew Grant. Andrew, how are you?

Andrew Grant:

Morning, Darren. Yes, very well. Enjoying this lovely, lovely weather we're having.

Darren A. Smith:

We are having lovely weather. So now lovely weather, moving on to regulatory stuff. There's a lot going on in the media right now, The Grocer and others, and I think you're going to tell us more about it.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah, no, we're always trying to keep up with what's happening out there in grocery world. And this week, it is quite interesting, you feel sorry for the politicians sometimes, or maybe you shouldn't, but they go from hero to zero in a flick of a finger. I think with this government it's been the other way around; they go from zero being blamed for the whole pandemic, even though I don't think it was quite their fault, to now suddenly being heroes because of the success of the vaccine rollout. And the flip of that is the grocers, as we've been reporting for the last 30-odd episodes, I mean they really pulled out every stop during the pandemic; they kept the nation fed, they've kept us safe, they've spent gazillions on repurposing their stores, et cetera.

And what happens the minute we're now seeing light at the end of the tunnel of the pandemic, Morrison shareholders veto David Potts's bonus, I'm sure a very well-earned bonus. So yesterday 70% of the shareholders vetoed his bonus for all the hard work that they praised him for during the pandemic and then the Grocery Code Adjudicator, Mark Davis, the new kid on the block-

Preliminary GSCOP survey results

 

Darren A. Smith:

Mark White?

Andrew Grant:

Sorry, Mark White, sorry. Yes. Mark White. Where did Mark Davis come from? Mark White. Yeah, he published his Annual Supplier Survey, praising Sainsbury's for topping Aldi to the top of the tree. So ever since the survey has been done, Aldi had been top of the tree. Sainsbury's number one this year; 97% compliance, according to suppliers, with the code. So well done, Sainsbury's.

Darren A. Smith:

That's very good to top Aldi, as you say, they've been top of the tree for a very long time. I sense a "but" coming.

Andrew Grant:

I was just to say but Mark has now, with the same breath, almost the same press release, announces he's concerned about Sainsbury's range reset, having heard from a number of suppliers about allegedly non-code compliant practices. So yeah, Sainsbury's are doing a range reset, most of the retailers have post-pandemic, because, as we've been talking about, shopping habits have changed.

Darren A. Smith:

Yes, [inaudible 00:03:11], of course they have.

Andrew Grant:

But yeah, he's been approached by a number of Sainsbury's suppliers alleging that Sainsbury's are giving very short notice of D-lists and, I can't quite believe this number but it's in the press, it's black and white, asking for up to 20% of a supplier's sales turnover as a range reset or business fee.

Darren A. Smith:

And I read that too; 20%. So if you are a 5 million pound supplier end-sales, you need to hand over 1 million pounds as a lump sum to keep your business?

Andrew Grant:

Well, it's more than that. If you think of some of Sainsbury's biggest branded suppliers and you can name those as well as me, they will have 100 million pound businesses. Are they really going to hand over 20 million quid? I don't think so.

Darren A. Smith:

They're not.