The Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) has launched a fresh appeal for suppliers to come forward over supermarket handling of CPI requests.
The adjudicator told The Grocer he was “scrutinising” responses from retailers after holding a series of meetings with code compliance officers of all the major supermarkets.
It comes after a survey for The Grocer last month showed suppliers had met a “brick wall” from supermarkets in trying to get cost price increases through.
“In my recent meetings with retailers, I scrutinised their responses to suppliers’ Code issues and their handling of cost price increase requests,” White explained. “Retailers and I want to hear from suppliers – the issues that suppliers raise help me hold retailers to account.”
He said the meetings covered both retailers’ handling of CPI requests and how CCOs can help give suppliers confidence to raise issues, including through CCO commitments to confidentiality and checking that suppliers have not been negatively affected for raising concerns.
A survey of 40 suppliers last month by retail consultancy The Retail Mind revealed that while more than 85% of suppliers surveyed had looked to pass on the impact of inflation to retailers this year, only one in five of those had been able to recover their costs.
However, earlier this month Tesco CEO Ken Murphy defended its negotiations with suppliers on food inflation, saying its determination to prevent “unjustified” cost price increases (CPIs) has helped to keep a lid on food prices.
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