The Competition Commission has finally got around to unveiling its plans for a supermarket ombudsman. http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2009/04/28/115338/grocery-ombudsman-plans-launched.html 

I've not had chance to read through all the proposals yet, but it will basically act as a arbitrator between retailers and suppliers whenever there are complaints.

The NFU is pleased with the plans, but whether the retailers sign up to them is another matter...

not before time.

with the whole country in economic meltdown, tesco is the only company actually increasing its profit, at the expense of farmers.

i have it on good authority that 90 days is now the minimum wait for payment

glasshouse:

i have it on good authority that 90 days is now the minimum wait for payment

        Several years ago I was driving through Dundee with a front passenger who owned and ran an excellent food store. He has been all his life in the food retail trade. As we drove passed Tesco's giant super market on the Kingsway, just opened, he said to me." Do you see that Tesco store? Tesco can build that store on the money lying out that they are due their suppliers, and the next store and so on".  Okay, that is only anecdotal evidence and I think it may be more difficult to understand at todays interest rates, but at previous interests rates it is not too far fetched.

I know this is not necessarily the current situation, but the last full published accounts (year to 23 February 2008) show total group cost of sales at £43,668m with trade creditors of £3,936m.  This equates to an average payment period of 33 days.  If you allow that part of the outstanding creditor figure includes VAT, the payment term reduces towards 30 days.

People will undoubtedly gather from my previous posts that I am far from a Tesco fan, but sometimes hearsay is misleading.  In another thread someone, Glasshouse I think, has described Tesco as a company founded on greed.  I seem to recall that its founding principle was actually to 'pile it high and sell it cheap'. 

Tesco make a net operating profit, before tax, of 6% on its UK turnover.  It returns its shareholders a dividend yield of about 3.6%.  These do not seem to be excessively greedy to me.  If UK suppliers want more for their goods do they expect it to come out of the pockets of the shareholders or the customers?

_action_:

ActionAid is part of a network of organisations campaigning for a supermarket ombudsman.

Action aid is a member of over a 100 alliances campaigning for all kinds of things and this email demonstrates how charitable organisations 'drift' away from their original discrete intententions which were summed up as it says on its own site,

ActionAid has been fighting poverty worldwide for over 30 years. As the nature and causes of poverty have become more complex, we too have had to change.

1972: ActionAid starts life as British charity Action in Distress which based its activities on educating children.

One can see the logic that drove their present 2633 employees (mostly from so-called developing countries) to shift some of their focus from action to analysis, marketing and campaigning, but in my opinion they should stick to the 'coal face' action rather than rushing around the world setting up alliances which are essentially talking shops with tea, biscuits glossy reports and bums on seats.

 

 

 

I hate the idea of yet another Ombusman, I stand by my letter published in Farmers Weekly Opinion Page (28) on the 28th August last year. I headed it "Supermarkets are not Bullies" I think we are extremely lucky in the UK to have people like Andy Bond (Asda), Justin King (Sainsbury's) and Sir Terry Leahy (Tesco's) running highly successful businesses that market the products of British Farmers, Look at the success that Hovis are getting with their flagged and branded 100% British Wheat product. Partnership and co-operation instead of division and confrontation will help the whole market much more without an added layer. Do supermarkets make mistake, yes, of course the do, should they pay their invoice within 28 days, yes, they should, are they the devil incarnate, well actually no, they are every farmers partner near enough. I also think actually, they have helped reduce poverty. Should farmers get a fairer deal, yes, should yet another layer of quango's. I don't think so.

no surprises there john

up the free market, and the devil take the hindmost.

the supermarkets have relieved british farming of most of its capital since 1980. there is a partnership, but only one way.

  Thank you for your comments Peter.  It raises an important issue I am sure many people would like to have answered.   

ActionAid works on the ground in over 40 countries. We work with communities around the world to meet their needs now and help people claim their own rights. ActionAid does not want to work in any community forever. Instead, it is our aim to put in place systems, resources, and secure rights, so that when we leave, the community can continue to flourish.

 

To do that often requires campaigning in that specific country. But it also requires us to challenge world leaders and multinational companies to help uphold people’s rights through policy lobbying and public campaigning.

 

The scale of the problem is huge. 1 in 6 people in the world are living in hunger; the majority is in the developing world.  In Sierra Leone, where we work, one in four children die before their fifth birthday.

 

Campaigning has the potential to bring change on this same scale. Over the last few years, campaigning has resulted in real breakthroughs. For example, sustained campaigning has led to over $50bn of debt cancellation for developing countries, money that can now fund healthcare, education and other key services.  Campaigning has also led to a promise from world leaders to provide HIV treatment for all who need it.

 

None of these achievements would have been possible if ActionAid worked alone. For example, one of our most successful alliances recently has been the global campaign for education.  As a result of the coordinated efforts of many groups, this campaign led countries to remove school user fees. As a result, some of the world’s poorest children are attending school for the first time ever. In fact, 40 million more children have been able to access school in the last 8 years: http://www.campaignforeducation.org/en/why-education-for-all/education-for-all-is-possible

 

Through effective campaigning we have helped to improve the prospects for many more people, whilst ensuring that ActionAid's programme work has the maximum possible impact. But to have this level of impact, we must work with other agencies. That is why we work in alliances.

      

 

_action_:

Through effective campaigning we have helped to improve the prospects for many more people

Laudible aims action but how are the actions of the supermarkets affecting the people you are supporting? Why do you need an ombudsman in place?

 

_action_:

This trade provides vital jobs and investment in the developing world.

Indeed it does action and of course many jobs and investment in the so called developed world as well. The investigation by the Competition Commission and equivalent bodies around the globe have highlighted many food buyer practices that appear to be against certain moral values at least and anti-competitive at worst.

The issue of poverty is relative to all countries and boils down to money being unequally distributed, we have according to the statistics 1 in 4 people right here in the UK who could be classed as poor, whose living conditions and rights are not exactly looked after either and because they cannot afford certan foods they could be making the situation worse for overseas producers because they are demanding cheaper food from the very same supermarkets the ombudsman is setting out to oversee.

The way I see it as we have created a very corrupt society where the few exploit the many and if not directly sanctioned by certainly their business practices are very rarely challenged by the goverment administrations who are alledgedly put into power by the people but cannot also stop the for profit interests dictating the terms under which a countries people must live whenever profit (or greed) is the driver.

 

the greenth, very well put. There are extremely poor people, many trying to subsist on small pieces of land, in most if not all countries in the EU. There are almost 100,000 homes in Portugal without water or sanitation. I am sure there are many thousands more in other countries of the EU. The UK is to use the common expression "bust" it does not have any money to give away. It needs to look after its own first. Sorry AA, but that is the position.

_action_:

But at the same time, excessive cost and risk pressures result in an unfair transfer wealth from poor countries to supermarkets

The logic of this applies equally to farmers in the UK, in that 'excessive cost and risk pressures result in unfair transfer of wealth from poor farmer to supermarkets.'

In another of your posts you talk of how your efforts, along with others, got £50 billion of debt cancelled. What you did not acknowledge is that money was mainly UK and US taxpayers money, and now forms part of the debt that our grandchildren will carry as a burden.

I return to my main point. By all means help individuals to learn how to look after themselves, (although heaven knows they used to do that before the colonists got there) but stay away from all the campaigning and politicking. These latter activities bring prestige and glory to the marketing men of the NGO's but does precious little for the poor souls needing help to dig a well or needing a malarial drug.

Just before you write us off as uncaring and unkind individuals with no thought for those less fortunate than ourselves. My guess is that the overwhelming majority of FW readers already give to charities, carry out local acts of kindness and contribute to a host of organisations dedicated to helping others. We may not have marketing men to trumpet our good works and we may not try to occupy the moral high ground but that does not negate or minimise the acts of generosity or altruism carried out by farmers generally. 

PS. Even now I am not trying to claim the moral high ground on behalf of farmers, but just making sure you don't.