Make code compulsory – FSB

THE FEDERATION of Small Businesses has backed calls from farming groups to make the supermarket Code of Practice compulsory.

The voluntary code, launched in 2002, has failed to deliver and legislation is now needed to curb the retail giants monopoly power, said FSB rural affairs chairman John Holbrow.

Supermarkets should be barred from “below-cost” selling so that small suppliers are no longer trading on unviable terms and local retail businesses are free from unfair competition, said Mr Holbrow.

“We also want the Office of Fair Trading to use its new powers and resources to investigate the whole grocery sector,” he said, speaking on Weds Jul 21 at the launch of the FSB‘s new report, An Entrepreneurial Countryside.

“Labour MP for Braintree, Alan Hurst, backed the call, dubbing the last decade‘s consolidation in the retail sector “inherently anti-competitive”.

“The government should cast a more critical eye on the activities of supermarkets,” said Mr Hurst.