Charges vary depending on work needed and time taken

Morrisons is introducing new charges for suppliers to cover the cost of approving own-label products and ensuring they comply with all relevant UK and EU legislation.

In a letter to suppliers, Morrisons group trading director Casper Meijer said the supermarket employed a team of technical and trading standards professionals to make sure there were no legal issues with new and revamped products.

Meijer explained that from 30 July this year, Morrisons would be introducing new charges to recover the costs associated with this work.

“This approval stage is intrinsic to our product development process and provides clear benefit to our suppliers in terms of identifying potential legal compliance issues,” he said.

The charges vary depending on the work needed and time taken in-house and apply to all new and updated products. They also apply to products that require changes to labelling to meet new legal requirements. For example, there is a specific charge for converting packaging to comply with new EU rules on food labelling that come into force on 13 December.

Suppliers said the charges - levied per SKU - would quickly add up, given the frequency with which products are revamped and amended. They also complained that it was the latest in a series of attempts by the retailer to recoup costs.

Morrisons defended the new own-label charges. “We make it clear to suppliers that we share the costs associated with the system we have to manage,” it said in a statement. “We gave plenty of notice to our suppliers about the development and process changes we have made.”

At the end of last year, Morrisons asked for contributions to support the launch of Morrisons.com and cover costs such as photographing products for the website.