Tesco and Aldi have dropped in the rankings of the Groceries Code Adjudicator’s 2023 annual survey as a challenging trading period has strained relationships between suppliers and retailers.
Suppliers previously listed Aldi as the top retailer for eight of the past 10 years, however the discount grocer fell to seventh place this year out of a total 14 retailers.
Aldi is understood to have struggled to maintain its relationships with suppliers over the past year, particularly regarding fresh produce.
However, Aldi noted that it continued to maintain the highest score for fair trading relationships.
Tesco also fell from second in 2022 to sixth position this year, despite 94% of suppliers agreeing that it was mostly or consistently compliant with the code.
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M&S topped the list with a record high total of 99% while the average compliance score across the 14 retailers was 92%.
Of those included in the 2022 Annual Survey, eight of 13 improved their overall compliance score by 3% or more year on year.
However, despite the overall uplift, 91% of suppliers requested at least one cost price increase (CPI) in the past 12 months but 28% said that retailers had refused to consider the CPI or had experienced an unreasonable delay in agreeing or implementing an agreed CPI.
A quarter (25%) also experienced inadequate processes and procedures in place to enable invoice discrepancies to be resolved quickly, an increase from 18% in 2022.
A total of 8% of suppliers raised an issue with a retailer in the last year, with Amazon experiencing concerns among 8% of suppliers and 3% at Morrisons.
“It is encouraging to see that the overall compliance scores of retailers have improved, despite the challenging year the sector has faced,” Groceries Code Adjudicator, Mark White said.
“For the second year running, some of the retailers have struggled with the high volumes of CPI requests being received, which may have contributed to both how they respond to the requests and other issues such as invoice discrepancies due to pricing errors.
He said that is working with retailers “to ensure they address these issues promptly” and is urging suppliers to “confidently report all code-related issues they experience,” so that “necessary action is taken swiftly”.
