Consumers may have moved on from Horsegate, but the legacy for the supply chain looks set to be rather more permanent.
Suppliers that were heavily implicated in the scandal, such as ABP Food Group and Comigel, have made dramatic changes to their operations. ABP CEO Paul Finnerty (above) sold the company’s Silvercrest plant, where the 29.1% Tesco burger that kicked off the scandal was made, while Comigel says it was forced to lay off 120 of its 450 staff after horsemeat was discovered in its frozen pasta dishes. Both also chucked large amounts of products, with ABP disposing of 10 million burgers and Comigel throwing away 4.5 million ready meals.
“25% of the British public are eating less meat than they were a year ago”
Vegetarian Society
The day-to-day operational impact has perhaps been even more profound. Take the use of traders. ABP has cut them from its supply chain entirely, and group livestock strategy manager Stuart Roberts has no intention of bringing them back. “An important lesson has been learnt that long and complex supply chains, which rely heavily on third-party traders, can pose risks for companies who want to have absolute confidence in the food they produce,” he says.
It’s not just those directly implicated in the scandal that have changed processes, with other suppliers either cutting brokers out entirely, or working with a smaller number. And controls will be more robust, with the BRC launching an accreditation scheme in December in response to the Elliott review (which had identified them as a weak link across the supply chain).
Many supply chains have also become more consolidated, with retailers like Tesco seeking to reduce the number of suppliers they deal with and to forge closer and simpler relationships.
Another key change is the introduction of DNA testing and sampling. Testing alone does not make for safer supply chains, but it can help verify authenticity.
What level of testing is not clear. Brown at the FSA will not insist companies do a certain level of testing, meaning companies will need to work out what is right for their supply chains. Did anyone benefit in the long term?
Did anyone benefit?
As Horsegate hit, indie butchers enjoyed a sales boost, but as shoppers put the scandal behind them, trading has since returned to normal levels.
Richard Cullen, retail and consumer insight manager at Eblex, the trade body of the beef and lamb industry, says butchers were “talking about strong sales, but when we looked at the numbers there was only a slight uplift, and it wasn’t sustainable. For a couple of weeks butchers did see quite an increase, but after that there wasn’t much going on.”
Likewise, the Q Guild, which represents 120 independent butchers in the UK, said members experienced a sales uplift of between 40% to 60% immediately after the scandal hit, but the uplift trailed off over the following months.
“Long supply chains can pose risks to absolute confidence in the food produced”
Stuart Roberts, ABP
With Tesco leading the supermarkets in pledging to source more red meat from the UK (Waitrose made a similar commitment), poultry king Ranjit Boparan’s timing looked impeccable as he snapped up seven red meat sites in March for an undisclosed sum (thought to be around £30m) as Vion exited the UK market.
However, like a lot of chilled suppliers, Boparan also claims Horsegate dented sales.
And what of the meat substitute category? At the start of 2013, the meat-free sector was punching above its weight, with sales up 6.6% to £252.9m on volumes up 3.8% [Kantar Worldpanel 52 w/e 17 February 2013]. But then Horsegate hit - and sales went into overdrive.
Quorn reported sales uplifts of 38% at the height of the scandal. Its manufacturing facility was working flat out, producing more than 140 tonnes of Quorn a week. But CEO Kevin Brennan says sales in the year to 10 November rose 6.4% by value to £128m. So the growth is broadly in line with historic trading performance
With other smaller brands also reporting soaring sales, the Vegetarian Society’s website saw a 40% spike in visits at the height of the crisis. And though media interest has waned, “25% of the British public are eating less meat than a year ago” claims a Vegetarian Society spokeswoman.
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