from Safeway supplier, name and address supplied
Sir; Safeway is certainly a focused business now focused on threatening its suppliers to bolster its short-term cash and profits.
Having supplied Safeway for many years, we have got used to the delisting threats and extra demands as Safeway's year-ends approach, but this year-end is quite exceptional.
Innovative and focused suppliers now face further demands to keep the business they have created for Safeway.
Safeway's management is working hard to extract the last penny from its suppliers by threatening to delist, and introduce new suppliers who are prepared to pay handsomely for the privilege.
Marketing initiatives and consumer propositions such as Safeway's much vaunted Best in Fresh' have all been pushed aside in the dash for cash to bolster year-end profits and lift the share price.
Demands for six figure payments (in cash and by the end of March, if you please) breach the government's code of practice, but no matter. Safeway's suppliers, who have had to manage numerous other breaches, are not expected to do anything about that, as any report to the Office of Fair Trading could damage their business even more.
These six-figure sums must all add up to many millions, and one wonders how Safeway's profitability would look without these one off' payments.
Such large demands will certainly create major problems for suppliers, and stop other investment and job creation.
The consumer will certainly notice the changes as new brands and products made to a price' are introduced, and will desert Safeway in droves. But at Safeway's Hayes headquarters nobody will care they will all be long gone.
{{COMMENT & LETTERS }}
Sir; Safeway is certainly a focused business now focused on threatening its suppliers to bolster its short-term cash and profits.
Having supplied Safeway for many years, we have got used to the delisting threats and extra demands as Safeway's year-ends approach, but this year-end is quite exceptional.
Innovative and focused suppliers now face further demands to keep the business they have created for Safeway.
Safeway's management is working hard to extract the last penny from its suppliers by threatening to delist, and introduce new suppliers who are prepared to pay handsomely for the privilege.
Marketing initiatives and consumer propositions such as Safeway's much vaunted Best in Fresh' have all been pushed aside in the dash for cash to bolster year-end profits and lift the share price.
Demands for six figure payments (in cash and by the end of March, if you please) breach the government's code of practice, but no matter. Safeway's suppliers, who have had to manage numerous other breaches, are not expected to do anything about that, as any report to the Office of Fair Trading could damage their business even more.
These six-figure sums must all add up to many millions, and one wonders how Safeway's profitability would look without these one off' payments.
Such large demands will certainly create major problems for suppliers, and stop other investment and job creation.
The consumer will certainly notice the changes as new brands and products made to a price' are introduced, and will desert Safeway in droves. But at Safeway's Hayes headquarters nobody will care they will all be long gone.
{{COMMENT & LETTERS }}
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