Improved compliance from Retailers despite inflationary pressures persisting
Read about the GCA 2023 Groceries Sector Survey results.
Inflation has continued to create challenges for the groceries sector, the Groceries Code Adjudicator’s (GCA) 2023 annual survey reveals today. The results of the tenth annual GCA survey show that 91% of suppliers had requested at least one cost price increase (CPI) in the previous 12 months. 28% of respondents reported a refusal to consider a CPI or an unreasonable delay in reaching a decision on a CPI request, the most reported issue in 2023 and over the past six years.
– which attracted over 2,000 responses for the third successive year – indicates that inflation is likely to be exacerbating issues faced by suppliers due to delays and errors in implementing price rises:
- 25% of suppliers said they had experienced inadequate processes and procedures in place to enable invoice discrepancies to be resolved quickly – increased from 18% in 2022.
- 16% of suppliers said they had experienced data input errors (e.g. pricing) not resolved promptly (within seven days) – increased from 10% in 2022.
Amazon was included in the 2023 survey for the first time. Accordingly, it is not possible to directly compare issues raised in 2022 and 2023.
Yet despite difficult conditions, suppliers think that, overall, the Retailers have improved their Code compliance. The average compliance score across the 14 Retailers was 92% and of those included in the 2022 Annual Survey, 8 out of 13 improved their overall compliance score by 3% or more year-on-year. M&S took the top spot in 2023 with a record high score of 99%.
Mark White, the Groceries Code Adjudicator said:
“It is encouraging to see that the overall compliance scores of Retailers have improved, despite the challenging year the sector has faced.
“For the second year running, some of the Retailers have struggled with the high volumes of CPI requests being received, which may have contributed to both how they respond to the requests and other issues such as invoice discrepancies due to pricing errors. I am working with Retailers to ensure they address these issues promptly, to decrease the burden on suppliers.
“I will also be watching closely to see how Retailers respond to any changing patterns of inflation and how they manage cost price decreases. I urge suppliers to confidentially report all Code-related issues they experience so I can raise them confidentially with Retailers and ensure necessary action is taken swiftly.”
Compliance scores
The percentage scores for ‘mostly or consistently’ complying with the Code ranged from a record high of 99% to 59% with an average compliance across all 14 Retailers of 92%. 11 of the 13 Retailers who were also included in the 2022 survey improved their compliance scores, with 8 Retailers seeing an improvement of 3% or more and only 2 Retailers seeing a decrease in their scores.
M&S came top out of the 14 Retailers with their score increasing to a record high of 99% (up from 97% in 2022). Of all the Retailers, Iceland saw the greatest improvement in their performance from 2022 (up by 6%, from 86% in 2022 to 92% in 2023).
Raising issues with the GCA
The 2023 survey revealed improved confidence in suppliers raising an issue with the GCA (up to 58% from 55% in 2022). Believing that the Retailer will find out and there will be consequences for their business was reported as the main reason suppliers would not raise an issue with the GCA. 41% of suppliers cited this reason, down 1% since 2022 and 12% since 2019. The GCA’s extension to the CCO’s confidentiality commitment aims to reassure suppliers they will not face negative consequences as a result of reporting issues to Retailers.
Next steps
Following the publication of the results, YouGov is undertaking a series of deep dive interviews with suppliers on the GCA’s behalf. The results will provide a greater depth of understanding about the issues that suppliers are facing.
The results will be shared at the GCA’s 2023 annual conference on 28 September. Details of the annual conference will be published on the GCA website.
Further information
The 2023 GCA annual survey was open between 16 January and 26 February 2023.
An with a breakdown of results is available.