The Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) is seeking views from bakery suppliers for its annual groceries sector survey.
The GCA is responsible for regulating the relationships between the UK’s largest grocery retailers and their direct suppliers by encouraging, monitoring and enforcing compliance with the Groceries Supply Code of Practice. This covers a variety of areas including fair dealing, changes to supply chain procedures, promotions, and de-listing.
The survey, run by the independent polling company YouGov, is one of most important ways for suppliers to confidentially tell the GCA about their experiences supplying the 14 large retailers – Aldi, Amazon, Asda, B&M, Co-op, Home Bargains, Iceland, Lidl, M&S, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, and Waitrose. It covers the behaviour of the retailers and issues affecting the industry. The responses will help the GCA understand which large retailers are perceived as the most, and least, compliant with the Groceries Code and how cost price negotiations and other issues are impacting suppliers.
The survey is open for six weeks, closing on Sunday 23 February 2025, and the results will be published in the summer. The GCA will commission YouGov to conduct anonymous follow-up interviews with a select group of respondents to explore supplier concerns in more detail.
“I want to hear from as many suppliers as possible about their ongoing experiences supplying the large retailers. Your feedback helps me to better understand supplier concerns and to focus my engagement to ensure these retailers treat all suppliers fairly and lawfully,” said the adjudicator, Mark White.
“The 2024 survey results showed improvements in the number of suppliers experiencing Code issues and across several of the most significant issues impacting relationships between the large retailers and their suppliers. It also highlighted suppliers’ concerns about Amazon.”
2024 survey
The 2024 survey revealed that the number of suppliers experiencing a Code issue had fallen by 3% to 33%. There was a 12% fall, to 16%, in the percentage of suppliers highlighting a large retailer’s response to a CPI request as an issue.
Suppliers perceived improvements against other issues including large retailers’ processes to promptly resolve invoice discrepancies and data input errors. The GCA is interested to see what changes suppliers perceive in this survey.
The 2024 survey results also highlighted suppliers’ concerns about Amazon; its perceived Code compliance score fell from 59% to 47%. The GCA is monitoring the actions that Amazon is taking to ensure it is demonstrably complying with the Code and would like to continue to hear from suppliers about their ongoing experiences.
Those interested in participating in the survey can do so via this link.
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