Supplier Abuse - who's guilty?
Posted on in Cycles News
The Government's Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) wants to identify activities which are negatively impacting upon the retail supply chain.
The issue of prompt payment by large retailers is a key concern. Across the UK economy, the overall level of late payment owed to small and medium sized businesses is reported as standing at £39.4 billion. Against this background, the Government is bringing forward a requirement for all large and listed companies to report on their payment practices through the Small Business, Employment and Enterprise Bill. The consultation, which will be published shortly, will describe the scale of the challenge, how the reporting requirement will work and what type of information businesses could report on.
The national press has also increasingly raised concerns re other pressure tactics from large retailers to generate supplementary income from suppliers to provide a boost to their profits and fund their own expansion plans. Recent debate has centered on the additional ‘marketing charges' levied for prime in store positions and other activities, but there are a growing number of reported experiences of added large retailer levies. Only last Christmas Debenhams Finance Director resigned after his ‘Santa Tax' blow up in his face and earlier this year the ACT attacked Halfords for their retrospective supplier ‘investment invitation', to fund Halfords development, which caused great consternation amongst ACT supplier members and the S.M.E. sector. This issue is still under investigation.
The BIS Retail Unit wants to engage further with the retail sector to help shape the Prompt Payment Code and are seeking feedback on payment practices and other key issues facing retail and suppliers.
The next meeting of BIS's Retail Policy Forum is taking place this week, so your urgent feedback is required. Please either contact ActSmart directly info@actsmart.biz or write to chair@indieretail.org in total confidence. You can of course post open comments below.