Sir; I was disappointed to read Mike McGee's account of "putting the record straight" (The Grocer, May 4, p5) in response to my calls for a single buying group, as he hardly achieved that! The truth is that the first Landmark proposal was that Nisa should continue to run its retail operations, while Landmark would take over the running of the Today's Wholesale Group. It was a non-starter. The second proposal was, likewise, not a merger or the formation of a single buying group. It was, in fact, to create a super-group comprising only the largest members from each of the two groups. The remainder of members would comprise the Today's Group. The new super-group, while not necessarily bearing the Landmark name, would have been controlled from Milton Keynes. The proposal was rejected for the following justifiable reasons: l Most Today's Group members would have been "sold down the river" by removing the high-volume players l The super-group would have been launched with absolutely no buying terms, leaving members devoid of any means of competing l There would be no savings through scale as the two buying groups would still each have their attendant costs. It was also at variance with our own plans to move the Today's Group towards our goal of specialisation between our cash & carry and delivered wholesale members. The Today's Group is not dominated by its Nisa retail counterpart. On the contrary, our joint turnover of £15bn dwarfs that of Landmark, giving real volume with which to negotiate. Our central distribution operations allow the Today's Group member benefits including a chilled and frozen food drop shipment operation to its members' customers. For many years we have advocated a policy of working with our suppliers and ensuring that the investment reaches the point of sale. It is interesting to read that Landmark is now making attempts to catch up with us by adopting similar policies. Nevertheless, the gap is still wide and the Today's Group is, and will remain, the most progressive collective of wholesalers within our industry. Dudley Ramsden Executive Chairman Nisa Today's (Holdings) Ltd {{LETTERS }}

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