UK retailer The Co-operative has apologised to its suppliers after the publication of a report by the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) about specific historic supply practices at the company.
The UK retailer said that it has undertaken concrete changes to improve its systems and governance processes, including a root and branch review of all supplier dealings, as well as a review of depot processes.
The Co-op said that it is cooperating with the GCA, ensuring refund payments to those wrongly charged for benchmarking and quality control.
Jo Whitfield, food chief executive officer of Co-op, said, "We are sorry.
“We were focussed on rescuing the Co-op and doing right by consumers but we should have also given more thought to the potential impact those planned changes would have on our suppliers."
The retailer has also launched a retraining programme for over 1,000 colleagues in order to get up to speed with the requirements of the Code.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Alessandra Arosio. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
