The surprise finding in the detail of the OFT’s report into the supermarkets code of practice? That Sainsbury traders emerged as the industry’s junket junkies.
The OFT’s auditors found 42 instances where Sainsbury staff had accepted hospitality from a sample of 125 suppliers. This compares with six instances at Tesco, two at Safeway and none at Asda (which does not allow any hospitality to be accepted).
But the audit covered events before chief executive Justin King took control of Sainsbury and one of the first things he did after moving into his new role last year was to review the retailer’s hospitality policy and then tighten it up.
Hospitality is included in part two, clause five, of the code, which covers marketing costs such as artwork, packaging design and consumer research. The report shows that Sainsbury was far less likely than its rivals to charge suppliers for these other marketing costs - with just a handful of instances noted.
The OFT’s auditors found 42 instances where Sainsbury staff had accepted hospitality from a sample of 125 suppliers. This compares with six instances at Tesco, two at Safeway and none at Asda (which does not allow any hospitality to be accepted).
But the audit covered events before chief executive Justin King took control of Sainsbury and one of the first things he did after moving into his new role last year was to review the retailer’s hospitality policy and then tighten it up.
Hospitality is included in part two, clause five, of the code, which covers marketing costs such as artwork, packaging design and consumer research. The report shows that Sainsbury was far less likely than its rivals to charge suppliers for these other marketing costs - with just a handful of instances noted.
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