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22 Mar 2024

Rob Brown, co-director of Dalby Forest Cycle Hub, a not-for-profit hire scheme has been nominated for the Tourism Superstar 2024 award, run by VisitEngland.

21 Mar 2024

ACS (The Association of Convenience Stores) and the Federation of Independent Retailers (The Fed) have both welcomed a new report published by the Association of Police and Crime...

21 Mar 2024

As reported by Healthstores UK, new data contained in the 2024 Soil Association Organic Market report shows that independent retailers delivered an impressive 10% growth in 2023, with...

21 Mar 2024

An independent bottle shop and bar in Cheltenham has been named as the UK's Independent Beer and Wine Retailer of the Year 2024 at the Drinks Retailing Awards. 

21 Mar 2024

A number of organisations, including Bira (the British Independent Retailers’ Association), other trade associations, BIDs and unions have met with officials from the Welsh Government to...

21 Mar 2024

The British Independent Retailers’ Association (Bira) has reacted to data released by PwC and the Local Data Company exploring the state of the UK retail landscape.

8 Mar 2024

Daniel Blackham, editor of industry magazine BikeBiz, has been writing about his experience of completing the Cytech technical one qualification at training provider Spokes People in Milton...

6 Mar 2024

Cytech partner Activate Cycle Academy, the largest and most recognised training provider of bike maintenance and technical training courses to the UK’s cycle industry, recently welcomed a...

6 Mar 2024

The Greeting Card Association has reacted to a BBC Panorama programme lifting the lid on Royal Mail management prioritising parcel delivery over letters, which it says are in contradiction of...

4 Mar 2024

Pop star Kate Bush has been announced as an ambassador for this year's Record Store Day, on 20 April.

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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.

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