Edition 32: News from the Adjudicator
Read the latest newsletter from the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA).
Respond to the GCA 2023 Annual Survey
My annual survey is now live. Direct and indirect suppliers, and other stakeholders, have until 26 February to tell me about how they have been treated by the 14 large retailers.
The survey, run by the independent polling company YouGov, is one of the most important ways for suppliers to confidentially tell me about their experiences dealing with the Retailers. The survey covers a wide range of themes. The responses will help me to understand the ongoing impact of inflation and other issues affecting suppliers. I will be using the results to work with the Retailers to improve behaviour where I am concerned about issues.
I want to hear from as many suppliers as possible, so please help me to help you and respond to the survey.
Raising issues with Retailers
As well as telling me through my survey, it’s also important that suppliers can speak honestly and frankly to the Retailers when issues arise, so problems can be resolved as quickly as possible. Suppliers must be confident that they can do this without negative consequences for their business.
I take this issue very seriously. Each of the Retailers has confirmed to me that they want to hear from suppliers and work collaboratively to resolve issues and strengthen relationships. To address supplier concerns, all 14 Retailers have committed to “ensuring that suppliers do not face negative consequences as a result of raising issues with the business directly or with the CCO.”
This builds on the CCOs’ commitments to treat any discussion held with a supplier in the strictest of confidence unless the supplier agrees they can share details within the Retailer.
I hope that no suppliers will face this problem, but if suppliers do believe that raising Code issues with a Retailer has led to them facing negative consequences as a result, I want to hear from them. Suppliers can confidentially contact me at any time in several convenient ways, contact details are on my website.
Amazon commits to best practice statement on forensic auditing
Amazon UK (Amazon.com, Inc. was designated by the Competition and Markets Authority with effect from 1 March 2022) has signed up to the Voluntary Commitment on Forensic Auditing with effect from 16 December 2022 and has confirmed that it is committed to achieving best practice in the UK as set out in the Best Practice Statement on Forensic Auditing.
Code Compliance Officer updates
Mike Schmidt became the new Code Compliance Officer (CCO) at B&M at the start of this year. You can watch the video below to hear from Mike about his role at B&M and why he wants to speak to suppliers.
From 1 February, Alex Wood has been appointed as Aldi’s CCO.
Finally, in case you missed the news, Jenny Richards took over as Morrisons’ CCO in July 2022.
You can find the contact details for all 14 CCOs in my Code Confident Pack and website.