If there’s one thing grocers and suppliers can agree on, it’s the importance of availability. You cannot sell fresh air, as Ken Morrison used to say. So it’s worrying that as we report, the latest Groceries Code Adjudicator survey noted growing concerns from suppliers over retailer forecasting data.

At 17%, the significant costs incurred by suppliers through inaccurate forecasting is now joint first (along with invoice discrepancy resolution procedures) among issues experienced in the report. As a result, 9% highlighted a lack of compensation for forecasting errors and forecasts prepared without due care. And the survey paints a picture of increasingly “erratic” retailer behaviour characterised not just by short termism and uncommunicated range reviews, but inconsistent ordering patterns combined with obtuse instructions from constantly updated retailer portals, and computer-generated forecasts that are “often unreliable, unclear, and unusable”.