Julian Hunt
The independent retail sector needs to ditch its siege mentality and grab a bigger share of voice with government if it is to prosper in the future, according to Eoin McGettigan, chairman of Budgens.
In a passionate presentation at the Federation of Wholesale Distributors' annual conference, McGettigan said community retailers served millions of customers and he said there had to be a way of harnessing that support to ensure the political establishment stopped ignoring the independent sector.
"All politics is local," he said, "And the sector must encourage consumers to talk to their MPs about the value of the shops in their communities and the reasons they are under threat." He also believes the sector needs a coherent voice to describe to government what should be done to maintain a thriving retail scene in which community stores are not lost.
McGettigan believes the government should take the opportunity to rewrite its supermarket code of practice so the independent sector is no longer disadvantaged by terms that unfairly favoured the multiples. "If you place the same order you should pay the same price," said McGettigan. "I look at the orders placed through Nisa and I wonder how we can be buying it for more than Tesco."
Fairer terms were vital, he said, if the independent sector was to generate the sort of cash and margins needed to raise its game in order to compete with the multiples.
He proposed one radical solution. If suppliers raised prices to the multiples by just 0.5%, he said, that would improve terms to the independent sector by as much as 5% without having any impact on what the consumer paid for goods or on supplier margins. This call for a better deal for the independent sector was a key theme of the day.
James Hall, Bestway's retail development manager, spoke for most when he identified poor terms, low availability of new lines and the fact independents played second fiddle to the multiples on stock availability as key hurdles. "If this sector is to survive then it needs your support," he told suppliers.
And a similar challenge was laid down by Lee Furness of WH&HM Young and James Ward of AC Ward & Son who urged suppliers to thoroughly re-examine the way they did business with wholesalers at a time when the multiples were increasingly targeting the convenience sector for growth.
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The independent retail sector needs to ditch its siege mentality and grab a bigger share of voice with government if it is to prosper in the future, according to Eoin McGettigan, chairman of Budgens.
In a passionate presentation at the Federation of Wholesale Distributors' annual conference, McGettigan said community retailers served millions of customers and he said there had to be a way of harnessing that support to ensure the political establishment stopped ignoring the independent sector.
"All politics is local," he said, "And the sector must encourage consumers to talk to their MPs about the value of the shops in their communities and the reasons they are under threat." He also believes the sector needs a coherent voice to describe to government what should be done to maintain a thriving retail scene in which community stores are not lost.
McGettigan believes the government should take the opportunity to rewrite its supermarket code of practice so the independent sector is no longer disadvantaged by terms that unfairly favoured the multiples. "If you place the same order you should pay the same price," said McGettigan. "I look at the orders placed through Nisa and I wonder how we can be buying it for more than Tesco."
Fairer terms were vital, he said, if the independent sector was to generate the sort of cash and margins needed to raise its game in order to compete with the multiples.
He proposed one radical solution. If suppliers raised prices to the multiples by just 0.5%, he said, that would improve terms to the independent sector by as much as 5% without having any impact on what the consumer paid for goods or on supplier margins. This call for a better deal for the independent sector was a key theme of the day.
James Hall, Bestway's retail development manager, spoke for most when he identified poor terms, low availability of new lines and the fact independents played second fiddle to the multiples on stock availability as key hurdles. "If this sector is to survive then it needs your support," he told suppliers.
And a similar challenge was laid down by Lee Furness of WH&HM Young and James Ward of AC Ward & Son who urged suppliers to thoroughly re-examine the way they did business with wholesalers at a time when the multiples were increasingly targeting the convenience sector for growth.
{{NEWS }}
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