There has been a small improvement in the treatment of grocery suppliers, despite a fall in Amazon’s code compliance score, an annual survey shows.
The Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) gathers information from suppliers, including farmers, regarding issues they have faced and whether they are being treated fairly and lawfully by the retailers.
Overall, the results showed a reduction in suppliers experiencing breaches of the Groceries Supply Code of Practice (GSCOP), as the percentage score fell from 36% to 33%.
However, when looking at specific retailers’ compliance with the GSCOP, the results showed big changes at the top of the table.
For the first time, the Co-op ranked first place out of 14 retailers for overall code compliance (98%), displacing M&S from first place to third.
Both the Co-op and Lidl experienced a 2% improvement – the biggest percentage development across all 14 retailers.
However, it was bad news for Amazon as its code compliance score fell significantly from 59% to 47%.
The GCA has told Amazon that it must take swift and comprehensive action to demonstrably comply with the code as its score falls near to half of all other 13 retailers, flagging a need for substantial improvement.
Following record numbers of CPI (cost price increase) requests being submitted last year, the GCA has specifically monitored issues around CPI requests.
The survey results have shown that the number of suppliers highlighting a retailer’s response to a CPI has reduced from 28% in 2023 to just 16%.
However, the reduction in problems experienced with CPI requests could be due to the number of suppliers which requested at least one falling from 91% in 2023 to 67% in 2024.
Following feedback from members regarding concerns for CPD (cost price decrease) requests for the first time, the survey included a question on this.
The results showed 5% of suppliers highlighted concerns about how a CPD had been requested by a retailer.
Groceries Code Adjudicator Mark White said he was encouraged to see improvements in retailers’ treatment of suppliers across a range of issues.
This included the management of cost price increase requests but also resolution of invoice discrepancies and data input errors.
In response to the drop in Amazon’s code compliance score, Mr White said the online retailer “must ensure suppliers understand the changes it has made since its designation and in response to these survey results, and make any further changes that are needed to ensure code compliance”.
He encouraged suppliers to continue to confidentially inform him of any issues with Amazon, adding that he “will not hesitate” to launch a formal investigation if appropriate and necessary.
This was the eleventh survey conducted by the GCA in which there were more than 3,000 respondents consisting of a mixture of direct and indirect suppliers to retailers.
