Business Committee writes to supermarkets on payment practices

The letters have been sent to the following retailers (click on names for links to correspondence): William Morrison Supermarkets plc, Aldi Stores Limited, Iceland Foods Limited, Lidl UK GmbH, Ocado Group plc, B&M European Value Retail S.A.

The correspondence follows a recent BEIS Committee evidence hearing (on 14th May) with Christine Tacon CBE, the Groceries Code Adjudicator which picked up on a range of issues relating to the remit of the GCA, including around the treatment of suppliers and concerns around late payments and poor payment practices.  

The Prompt Payment Code website lists 6 of the 12 regulated retailers, covered by the GCA, as having signed up to the Prompt Payment Code: ASDA, Co-op, M&S, Sainsburys, Tesco and Waitrose (as John Lewis). 

In 2018, the BEIS Committee, in its Small businesses and productivity Report, recommended that “the Government moves as soon as possible to require all medium and large companies to sign the Prompt Payment Code and quickly adopts a statutory limit of paying within 30 days”. 

In the 2017-18 Annual Report, the Groceries Code Adjudicator noted that: “Delay in payments remained the number one concern highlighted by suppliers in the 2017 survey and continued to be an issue widely reported directly to the GCA by suppliers”. 

Further information

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