The country's biggest delivered wholesaler is working with suppliers to provide data on what its customers are, or are not, buying. Palmer & Harvey McLane is working with six of its biggest suppliers on the initiative, providing them with data generated by its management information system. P&H chairman Christopher Adams said that by sharing information in this way, the wholesaler could help suppliers identify where retailers were undertrading. "One manufacturer has identified more than 1,000 customers at our Medway operation who did not buy its product in a four-week period. "We now have good information on what we are supplying retailers on an individual basis ­ and what we are not supplying." He said the initiative would allow P&H ­ and its suppliers ­ to talk with retailers in a much more proactive way about how they planned their business and how they could get more value out of their trade with P&H. It is one of a number of initiatives at P&H designed to drive organic growth. l See feature, p35 {{NEWS }}

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