Small suppliers have accused Waitrose of “an absolute abuse of power” following its introduction of fines for late deliveries.

Since the summer, thousands of pounds have been deducted from suppliers’ trading accounts after Waitrose began to charge £60 for every late delivery into one of its RDCs.

Because the volume going through Waitrose is not big enough to justify a full lorry load, small suppliers consolidate their loads using a third-party logistics company.

As fines are charged to every supplier on the truck, Waitrose stands to gain hundreds of pounds if a lorry containing a consolidated load is held up - compared with just £60 if a delivery from a single large supplier arrives late, claimed angry suppliers.

One supplier revealed he had received £3,000 in fines in a single month. Another said that by December, his company had been fined thousands of pounds, representing 4% of its turnover.

The MD of a small chilled supplier also claimed to have been fined thousands since the summer and estimated it would take 5% off the company’s margin with Waitrose, potentially forcing it to ask for a price increase.

“This is an absolute abuse of power,” he said. “I’ve spoken to other suppliers and from what I can tell, smaller, weaker companies are much more likely to be fined,” he said. “We will review the prices we charge Waitrose to compensate us for the loss of margins.”

None of those who talked to The Grocer had received a fine from Waitrose before or been been told by any other supermarket that deliveries were not meeting punctuality targets.

“We’ve supplied Waitrose for years but had never received a fine until the summer,” said one. “We never signed anything to say we were willing to pay a charge, but there’s nothing we can do.

“It’s very important to be in Waitrose. They’re still the best partner to work with but these fines are completely the opposite of the relationship we’ve had until now.”

Another agreed that suppliers’ hands were tied. “As a small supplier you can only push back so hard,” he said.

A Waitrose spokeswoman said it would only recoup costs for deliveries more than 45 minutes late and that the charge was applied to all suppliers.

“Late deliveries cost us a significant amount of money. It is only fair that late suppliers contribute to that, and £60 fairly represents the cost to our business. We do not profit from it in any way.”

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