Grocery Guru Ep 22: Retailer Results Season - Will they be Requiring Monies?

Join Andrew Grant and Darren A. Smith in the twenty-second episode of Grocery Guru discussing Retailer Results Season and many of the retailers who are coming to their year-end and negotiations will be tough.

You Can Read the Full Retailer Results Season Episode Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

Welcome to the weekly episode. We're on number 22, and we're with the Grocery Guru, that is Andrew Grant. Andrew, hello. How are you doing?

Andrew Grant:

Very good, Darren. Are you well?

Darren A. Smith:

Yes, I'm well, I'm well. This week I think has been a slow news week. So Andrew, what have you got in our post bag for us?

Andrew Grant:

Yeah, it has. I didn't pick up anything really of much note this week, which is a dangerous thing to say, because it probably means I've missed something really important. But no, as you know, we get, what? 12, 15 queries a week, either email or whatever, from clients. And yeah, there's been a bit of a theme over the last couple of weeks. Obviously, it's result season, or year-end season, so just about all the supermarkets' year ends are either between the 1st of Jan and the 1st of April basically.

Darren A. Smith:

Right. Okay. So we're in results season. So you're an experienced person, you've been through this for quite a number of years. I'm an account manager, let's say, what can I expect in results season?

Andrew Grant:

Well, it's one of the things I've been getting the most queries about. Is that obviously, most buyers are working at home, a lot of consolidation of buying teams, so fewer buyers Because I always remember when I used to do it, the pressure to get annual terms agreed with all your suppliers. You inevitably start with the very big ones. But there's then this desperate rush to get the smaller suppliers' terms agreed before the start of your new financial year.

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah, true. Okay. So if I'm a buyer and I'm in results season, January, February, March, I'm trying to get terms agreed with all my suppliers. How many suppliers might I have?

Andrew Grant:

It depends on the size of the category, but 30 to a 100.

Results

 

Darren A. Smith:

Okay. So, there's a lot I've got to get done. And these are quite technical, these are legal things [crosstalk 00:02:07]

Andrew Grant:

No, it's a negotiation. And obviously each year I want a better over rider or I want higher gate fees for those gate fees that you're allowed to do. So you have to have a to and fro conversation with every single supplier, assuming that every single supplier doesn't say yes instantly. But the problem that now happens with GSCOP, and this has been where I've been getting the calls, is that the biggest single protection a supplier has under GSCOP is that the named retailers cannot do anything that is retrospective. It's an absolute no-no.

Darren A. Smith:

All right. So let me just understand that. So I'm an account manager, you're saying that they can't ask me for stuff retrospectively. They can't ask me for, now is the 1st of March or whatever it is, I want stuff for February?

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So, the difficulties buyers are getting themselves into is that they haven't agreed terms with their suppliers on time. And they're saying things like, look, we haven't agreed terms, we'll roll over this year's terms, which is allowed, but as soon as we do agree terms, the new terms get backdated to the start of my financial year.

Darren A. Smith:

Okay. All right. And so I understand that, are we talking about this is a Tesco or an Asda thing, is this just their policy or is it something more?

Andrew Grant:

Well, obviously only 13 named retailers are covered by GSCOP. Clearly I'm not going to name who ... Our suppliers wouldn't want us to be divulging which particular retailers it is. And it's not any one particular retailer actually. So I don't think it is ...