The Waitrose effect on house-values: a 'chicken or egg' issue?

According to an article* in The Daily Mail, Savills Estate Agents have examined how the cost of homes with a Waitrose in the same postcode compares to those in the rest of the same county.

The verdict was that the typical price of properties with a nearby branch was 25.3 per cent higher. For example, a home in Amersham, which has a neighbourhood Waitrose, typically costs £456,000, while the average for Buckinghamshire is £360,000. The situation is even more extreme in  London, where a local branch can add 50.3% to average prices....

Obviously 'quality of neighbourhood' comes very high on retailers' shopping lists when searching for new store locations, so it could be said that Waitrose tend to build in neighbourhoods where house prices are already at a premium...a good example of the chicken/egg conundrum often faced by NAMs in their attempts to distinguish cause and effect in the day-job... Either way, as the recession continues, it could be said that grocery sales even in 'Waitrose' areas will become increasingly vulnerable to discounter-appeal, the Aldi effect, eventually resulting in a downward pressure on house prices?

Accordingly, in relating house-price sensitivity to 'outside factors', it could be beneficial to get personal and explore the impact of continuing triple-dip recession (you don't really believe that 0.3% increase represents growth in the economy??) on a NAM's biggest asset...

Taking an investor's approach to house valuation, where a house is deemed to be worth twenty times its annual rental i.e. a 5% yield, the Amersham example at £450k would require a rental of £1,875/month to make it a viable investment.. In other words, it could be said that housing in the UK is overvalued, and in the event of continued economic flat-lining, house prices will eventually fall to a 'proper value'...

In most countries outside the UK & ROI, houses are regarded as homes, places to live, and not investment assets, and their use of a conservative 20x multiplier means they have been less susceptible to housing bubbles...and the consequent impact on spending.

All of this means that there is a potential 'housing-correction' in the UK pipeline that will prolong the flat-line demand, and this 'straight-curve' needs to be factored into NAMs' forecasts, in spite of political re-assurances to the contrary....

It follows that opportunities lie in wait for those NAMs that live in 'reality mode' while others await a return to normal.... 

* Housing prices near Waitrose

Argos squares up for Amazon battle

With like-for-like sales rising by 5.2% - its best performance since 2006 - in the final quarter of its financial year, coupled with a better than expected profit forecast (results due Wednesday 1st May) of £90m, Argos may be on the way back...

However, Argos-watching NAMs may feel that this recovery may be more a reflection of the demise of Jessops and Comet, than improvements in state-of-art retailing expertise...

According to a report in The Telegraph, Argos are planning  to spend £100m in each of the next three years to put the retailer in shape to battle with Amazon by converting its 700 stores into 100 “showrooms” and 600 click & collect sites, and providing advice from customers assistants.  .

The real issue has to be Argos ability to compete on an equal footing with Amazon and increasingly Tesco, a daunting prospect given their head-start in offering a combination of speed, (1-click) service, multi-channel access, pricing, and increasingly click & collect.

Whilst Argos' commitment to the new show-rooming initiative, combined hopefully with high grade store advisors and efficient click & collect, could offer an initial advantage, anything less than state-of-art performance will result in Argos having to fall back on price and range in attempting to grow sales at the expense of two of the leading players in the market.

However, the fundamental issue for Argos and its suppliers has to be its emphasis upon private label, planning to double its current 15% of sales to a third by 2018, in categories where retailer brands are not an obvious choice.

Given that much of Argos success will depend upon brands' collaboration, they may find that supplier NAMs may prefer to work in the heat of the kitchen with Tesco and Amazon, a place where consumers actually come to buy brands...  

How Cinema should be,,,?

Customer engagement at the Komedia Cinema, Brighton
A pointer for cinemas everywhere?

Converting showrooming into buying instore - a proactive role for brands and retailers?

Among those who showroom, two thirds use their phone whilst doing so, providing a major opportunity for brands to interact with consumers via mobile and turn browsers into buyers, at point-of-sale…

TNS’s latest annual Mobile Life study, based on responses from 38,000 people in 43 countries, shows that whilst showrooming is a very real threat, mobile can offer a solution to brands in minimising this risk. 

The study also shows that people are open to engaging with brands whilst in-store, with more than one fifth of smartphone owners keen to receive mobile coupons whilst shopping and a similar proportion interested in apps that help them navigate the store they are in, as they respond to the biggest drivers for showrooming:  reassurance on price and reassurance on suitability....

However, the key for suppliers and retailers is to resist the temptation to alienate via instore information-saturation, whether physical or online... Converting such potential ‘interruption-marketing’ into ‘permission-marketing’ can be achieved by clear announcements – physical signs, audio and online- that free wifi is available to facilitate online comparison, along with e-advice from both the stores site and brand-owners, all accessible from easy-links at point-of-sale, for those that choose to use the facilities….

In other words, retailers need to be encouraged to optimise this physical encounter with a showrooming shopper by getting their consumer-engagement right, making it easier, more convenient and worth a small premium for the potential purchaser to complete the process at that point, rather than giving the almost-completed sale to an online competitor, for a few pennies less…

Meanwhile, brand owners can help by attempting to measure the maximum price-difference that will just about prevent the showrooming shopper from going elsewhere to complete the purchase

Getting it right will benefit all parties…
 

Why the world loves Clarks and its shoes as it nears its 200th anniversary

                                                                                                        pic: Brian Moore
Obviously they make a good shoe, but I have always attributed Clarks’ success to their unique approach to two key factors – their design philosophy and trade management model.

How they design shoes
Essentially, Clarks design shoes from the inside out in terms of starting with a good fit, with appearance coming later. This is in contrast with more stylish continental shoes that start with appearance and work from the outside in, sometimes with unfortunate results in terms of comfort.

As their children - and their shoe requirements - transition to early teens, anyone with teenage daughters- or even grand-daughters - will appreciate the difficulty in persuading them to accept anything even remotely connected with ‘Clarks sandals’

Thus Clarks ‘loses’ the satisfied user for the vital middle years..

However, with age, the increasing need for comfort means that they pick up that same child in her mid-forties, thus realising the remaining life-time value of their users…

Filling the gap between childhood and middle-age has always represented a marketing challenge for Clarks (more on this ‘gap-filling’ and how this family firm has beaten the ‘3-generation’ rule, here)

How they manage the trade
From a retailing point of view, Clarks again have a unique approach. When the new season’s shoe-models have been approved, sufficient quantities are made to facilitate a series of viewings at selected hotels around the country. Shoe retailers are then invited to their nearest venue, are shown the range and are invited to commit on their requirements before leaving the premises… From experience the retailers know there are limited opportunities to go backwards or forwards on order quantities as the season develops.

When all the orders have been received, Clarks buy the leather and manufacture the shoes…

Meanwhile, where have the rest of us all missed a trade-trick, I ask myself….?

Amazon finally flexes its third party advertising muscles

Google knows what people are searching for. Facebook knows what people like and who their friends are. Amazon knows you searched last week for running shoes, but also that you bought a pair a year ago. That kind of information makes a difference, especially for third party advertisers....

How it works
After running ads on its own website for years, the company has taken the first steps toward becoming a true Internet advertising network, using the knowledge garnered from its data to place targeted ads for some of the world's biggest advertisers across thousands of other websites. It buys ad inventory - or online ad space - from content publishers or through exchanges, which are online markets for buying and selling inventory.

Amazon quietly started serving ads on other websites in the fourth quarter of 2010. This part of its business remained un-named until about the middle of last year, when the company formally christened it the Amazon Advertising Platform.

Another $1bn revenue stream for Amazon?
Numberswise, online advertising has 20 to 30 percent profit margins versus less than 5 percent for Amazon's retail business, according to Ben Schachter, an analyst at Macquarie. Moreover, with predictions that Amazon's ad business will hit $1 billion in sales this year, the attractions are obvious. "Amazon is not a retailer anymore, it is the largest behavioural marketing company in the world," said Yaakov Kimelfeld, chief research officer at Kantar Media Compete. "Amazon will be the best positioned to predict whether to buy inventory or not and be the most efficient in this market."

A step closer to 'permission marketing'?
The real potential for advertisers lies in the fact that regular users do not regard 'Amazon' advertising as an intrusion, given the precision of its targeting... It therefore fits well with Godin's philosophy that marketers should obtain permission before advancing to the next step in the purchasing process, in contrast with the 'interruption-marketing' of traditional media. Amazon's approach can be a step forward for advertisers wishing to open a willing dialogue with consumers that want to buy..

The 'superfluous 50%' of advertising....
The Amazon move does not bode well for traditional media. If we take the old advertising maxim: '50% of my advertising is wasted, trouble is, I don't know which half...' literally, it means that advertising impact can be achieved with 50% of the spend, if the waste can be avoided. As a result, the precise targeting based on the Amazon model will mean a significant reduction in advertising expenditure, even if the reduced budgets go to traditional media. However, if speed and flexibility becomes a requirement in optimising real-time purchasing data, then traditional media may again be found wanting... With the reduction in its advertising 'lifeblood', traditional media may have to resort to the 'cover-price' to restore viability, or make a fundamental 'e-assessment' of their ability to meet real consumer need......

The amazonian-advantages for advertisers should go without saying.....

Shop bans Google goggles: a first in UK retail?

                                                                               

Just days after they were delivered to the first early adopters who signed up last year to be the first to buy the ‘explorer edition’, a Brighton shop has banned access to shoppers wearing the new gadget.

Google Glass, worn like a pair of glasses, has the ability to record images and take photos, operating like a mobile phone or tablet. Arts and crafts souvenir shop Zoingimage, in Sydney Street, has posted signs on their windows banning the use of the device on their premises.

Google Glass’s ability to take photos secretly, unlike via a phone, are the real issue behind the bans. This ease with which privacy could be invaded makes it a challenge for schools, cinemas, museums,  art galleries and shops.

The key issue for NAMs is whether such bans mark a return to the ‘old’ no-photo rules on store-checks, or will shopper-pressure force retailers to allow the addition of Google Glass to the tool-kit of the super-savvy consumer, adding to pricing transparency in the aisle…

However, pro-active retailers, and their trading partners, are no doubt already seeking ways of communicating with such shoppers' eye-piece at point of purchase…

What if consumers demanded supplier trading-terms from retailers?

An article on retailers' treatment of suppliers in today's Independent* introduces an idea that may hold the key to achieving fair-share treatment in supplier-retailer relationships.

Suppose consumers began to modify their shopping behaviour as follows:

• Telling the shop staff they are happy with the price, but need a 5% settlement discount to pay at point-of-purchase...
• Demanding a retro-rebate on goods purchased from the store six months previously...
• Requesting an advertising allowance to carry the store's shopping bag home...
• Applying a deductions' allowance for unbudgeted delays at the checkout, low on-shelf availability, 'cold' bread at the bakery, unhelpful staff...
• Expecting a contract allowance for buying a jar of own-label coffee every week for a year...
• Offering to buy a product's all five variants in exchange for a full range bonus..
• Seeking a quarterly/yearly bonus for shopping regularly...
• Requesting a listing-allowance to add the store's own label product to their shopping list...
• Demanding a de-listing allowance to cover the inconvenience of removing same when tastes change...
• Making a promo-allowance a condition of 'telling-a-friend'....
• Requiring a 'customer representative allowance' to encourage family members to tell their friends..
• Demanding a merchandising allowance for displaying product on the rear window-ledge of the car...
• Offering to fill the car-boot and all available seats in exchange for a full-load bonus...
• Requesting a collection-allowance to cover the cost of selecting goods from shelves and transporting to the checkout...
• Demanding a compensation allowance because the new jumbo-pack does not fit home-storage shelving...

[NAMs are invited to add personal experiences to the above 'shopping list'.....]

Unlikely that consumers would take a pro-active stance against business practices they deem unfair?  So thought a well-known high street coffee chain when their customers discovered their off-shore arrangements to minimise UK corporation tax payments...

* The Independent 

The Savvy Approach to Late Payments, Invoice-Haircuts and other power abuse..

A cross party Parliamentary inquiry into late payment will take place next week. The meeting, which will be chaired by Labour MP Debbie Abrahams, will examine just how serious the problem has become for SMEs, but will also look at other issues around poor payment practices, including so called ‘invoice haircutting’.

Catch-up
By way of background, NAMs may not be aware that the legislation is slowly catching up with reality in these matters, in that last month government regulations were updated to define 'late payments' (60+ days)  and impose interest  (Base +8% i.e. 8.5%). However, as always, these developments miss the basic point that unless the Government adopts the get-tough approach taken in other jurisdictions such as France, the measures will fail.

(To really protect SMEs you need to create a non-negotiable time limit for the payment of commercial debts. This is what happens in France, where failure to comply with the Commercial Code can result in criminal prosecution and heavy fines. An excellent article by Ben Gardner, a commercial law expert at Pinsent Masons develops this point in some detail)

The Savvy Consumer Approach
Given the fact that the savvy consumer may be beginning to appreciate that late payments, invoice hair-cuts and other power abuse like off-shore tax avoidance may be part-hindrances in their search for demonstrable value for money, it can only be hoped that any 'naming and shaming' will help to focus consumer pressure on companies that use trading partners' funds to supplement their cashflow and bottom-line.

The Savvy Supplier Approach
Without evidence, the law cannot act. However, whilst we are all aware of the commercial risk in whistle-blowing on a customer, the savvy supplier has to find 'safe' ways of making power-abuse known, hopefully  adding to the anecdotal 'evidence' that may heighten sensitivity to the issue for all parties and stakeholders..
Furthermore, repeated generic references to the increasing cost -and risk- of financing free supply-chain credit and its impact on retail prices may help when suppliers are communicating via mainstream and informal media.

The Savvy Retailer Approach
However, the real opportunity lies available for those retailers that, having run the numbers on the value of 90 days free credit, appreciate the commercial advantage of voluntarily reducing their payment period to a more equitable level, first...

What is 'fair payment'?
The current legislation, here and in France, refers to 60 days as being an appropriate period of credit.
However, whilst 60 days may be appropriate in 'normal'  B2B relationships, we believe that the payment period should be related to the supply-usage cycle. In other words, as many fast-selling SKUs are delivered daily, and food-based retailers hold an overall average of just over two weeks stocks, we would submit that 15 days credit (net) in the case of such supplier-retailer commercial relationships would be more appropriate.

Incidentally, for those NAMs that have a gap in store-visits near the Houses of Parliament next week, the all party inquiry into late payment takes place next Tuesday, April 23, at the Houses of Parliament’s Grimmond Room, Portcullis House, between 2 and 5pm.....

Retail Score: Tesco (£1.2bn), Goldman $1.2bn

A Reuters review of six years of filings with the SEC shows the many ways Goldman Sachs managed to earn more than $1 billion from its dealings with Dollar General.

Here are the back-of-the-envelope calculations that show how Goldman did it. (April 10, 2013)

Who says all the potential has gone from retail...?

Tesco Ground Clearance - Non-partner suppliers?

With their latest results revealing the first profit fall in 20 years, it is obvious that Tesco have used the opportunity to announce the clear-out of non-performing assets such as US operation, UK property write-downs, and potential sale of 100 sites it no longer plans to develop.

Logically, this ‘clearance process’ could now extend to non- performing brands and products, resulting in a review of supplier-partner relationships with a P&L by supplier as the ultimate measure…

A way forward?
While others may be scratching their heads and wondering what went wrong, proactive NAMs could benefit from re-auditing their Tesco relationship, reassessing how they well they match the new Tesco austerity-profile, the extent to which they and Tesco are compatible and complementary, compared with other suppliers in the category, and explore potential synergies…

In other words, imagine you are pitching for the Tesco business for the first time, taking a totally fresh look at the company’s market potential and financials, comparing with competitive offerings currently available, all from Tesco’s perspective…then find a way of optimising the potential...

Creditors pay £1bn for retail failures, enough said?

Creditors, such as suppliers and landlords, are likely to have lost more than £1bn from the retail sector's 20 biggest insolvencies since the start of last year, according to the credit information specialist Company Watch, just published in The Independent.

This figure obviously represents just the tip of the iceberg, in that many smaller retail business, often below the radar of suppliers have also gone bust over the same period, with the evidence available in the level of  boarded-up high street outlets.

But are we using the correct KPI?

Incremental sales as a measure of Threat or Opportunity
As we all operate sales-based business-models, our only access to wealth generation is via the net profit on sales made to third parties. This means that when we count the cost to us and the value to our business  partners, it is best to calculate the incremental sales of the sum given or received.

Thus the above loss of £1bn would translate into incremental sales of £10bn, assuming all suppliers had a net profit margin of 10%...a mean achievement for many, in the current climate.

Application to the role of the NAM
Apart from being responsible for the early warning when a customer is in difficulties (demands for more credit, cash–based incentive, lack of compliance….) the NAM is also the one who has to generate the incremental sales via other customers when the liquidator intervenes. (Can you imagine anyone else generating extra sales?)

A reflex-calc for NAMs?
For this reason it is vital that NAMs calculate their company net profit margin and factor in the resulting incremental sales requirement when ANY money is invested in a customer, whether via free credit, settlement discount, trade funding or deductions.

In other words if your company makes a net margin of 5%, you need incremental sales of £20k for every £1,000 invested in a customer… (£1,000/5) x 100, which needs to be  a reflex-calculation for every pound spent…

Incidentally, on the Opportunity side, your retail customer with a net margin of 2.5% needs to appreciate that every £1,000 you invest in their business represents incremental sales of £40k…more valuable than they think, in these uncertain times?

(For this reason we have added an automatic incremental-sales-multiplier for supplier and retailer to many of NamCalc’s 32 tools) 

'Settlement fees' for early payment

Given that some retailers are offering suppliers earlier payment for a discount, it might be helpful to run the numbers and explore the financial impact on a supplier.
Assumptions
-  sales of £1.5m per annum to the retailer
-  current payment period                                 75 days, net
-  Discount for 21 days settlement                    5%

Customer now pays in 75 days
We want him to pay in 21 days
i.e. a  54-day reduction in payment period

Customer now pays 4.87 times per year i.e. 365/75          

We want him to pay 17.38 times per year i.e. 365/21              
Amount he owes us when paying in 75 days
= £1.5m/4.87 = £308,000
 
Amount he owes us when paying in 21 days
= £1.5m/17.38 = £86,306

 Cashflow saving = £308,000 -£86,306
    = £221,694
Settlement discount for 21 day payment
                                                                 = 5%   i.e.              (5% of £1.5m = £75k)
Cost of the 5% settlement            =  33.8%                (£75,000/221,694) x 100  
i.e. the supplier is paying 33.8% 'interest' on the cashflow saving

Supermarket copy-products: compounding the horse-meat aftertaste?

The latest Which? report on the supermarket practice of designing own label pack-graphics that keep them out of court, - just-, provides a good illustration of retailers' inability to appreciate that the 'letter' of the law has very little relevance in marketing and branding...

On the contrary, in preserving hard-won brand integrity, suppliers have learned that keeping within the 'spirit' of the law is a fundamental part of the unwritten 'contract' made with the consumer, and is in fact, the raison d'etre of branding. 

Sure, many suppliers can be easily intimidated into not litigating in cases of 'crossover' pack designs, and expensive legal help can optimise the hair-splitting in-court encounters with those that insist on making a stand, publicly..

However, the real issue is the damage caused to a retailer's integrity-image by being seen to be the party to a deception, a misleading impression affecting the consumer-shopper in the aisle, already busy second-guessing the content of their private label burgers...

The emergence of the super-savvy consumer-shopper, coupled with the aftermath of the horse-meat scandal, now makes it even more imperative that a retailer prevents what could be a tell-a-friend endorsement morphing into a 'tell 10 friends' criticism...
....thereby converting a raison d'etre into a raison d'eath... 

No going back - Tesco faces £1bn writedown to quit America

The size of the charge, via a writedown in the value of Tesco’s assets, shows that even playing by the book, doing all the obvious research, means relatively little when the world turns upside down, especially financially….

Fortunately Tesco has achieved reasonable success in other markets, and remains No.3 in the global league. However, the real issue is that it will take a very courageous leader to attempt to re-enter the US market, when conditions improve..

Better to have left a small physical presence combined with an online offering to make re-scaling easier.
It remains to be seen whether the rest-of-world will provide sufficient scope for the realisation of Tesco’s global ambitions, and remain No.3…

‘Be prepared’
Meanwhile, suppliers have to consider their response to any Tesco moves in their direction, as the company attempts to repair the damage done to its Balance Sheet….

HMV: Grocery Lessons in Survival?

News that Hilco is set to rescue HMV from 3-months administration added to the belief that music companies and film studios have agreed new supply terms with HMV and are backing the deal, means that the company has gained some breathing space…

As suppliers will be unable to offer unilateral support that not also available to other retailers, including grocery, the aim of music companies and film studios should be to reward HMV for any in-store activity that improves and delivers category performance. This support could also be offered to the grocers and mass retail.

However, given that online has possibly made the home entertainment format redundant, survival could depend on HMV being run more like a grocery shop, a format that manages to survive against impossible odds…

Leaving the ‘romance’ of home entertainment retailing aside for a moment, there are a number of grocery measures that could be adapted to the new HMV finance-based model, ideally with the support of suppliers…

Overall, the aim should be to make HMV home entertainment retailing comparable with leading edge major multiples as follows:

• Retail pricing: Suppliers need to set shelf pricing within an omni-channel strategy that will optimise the store model, and reduce unplanned leakage via other routes to consumer
• Net Margin: From its current net losses of 13%, HMV needs to achieve net margins of 5%+. This should start with average Gross Margins of 25%, allowing for 15% to run the shop, and 10% to cover central overheads and net profit.
• Sale-or-return: should not be offered, given that it can remove the incentive to sell and maintain the range and condition of in-store stock
• Stockturn: the grocers manage average turns of 20+, with individual SKUs  varying in response to demand. This can mean suppliers delivering some titles several times per day, if necessary (good practice for dealing with the grocery guys)
• Space Management: Again, leading grocers achieve £1,000 per sq. ft.  per annum on their store areas, with footprint of their fixtures/gondolas over-performing to 'carry' the non-selling space in the aisles. Given the near-vertical merchandising of CDs and DVDs i.e. minimum foot-print, this should be a no-brainer KPI for HMV
• Credit period: In the short term, credit should be limited to 30 days to encourage financial discipline in what is a cash business at point-of-sale.  The current 45-90 days enjoyed by some retailers is a ‘temporary’ aberration that will be corrected as soon as a government begins to fully appreciate the damage being done throughout the demand-supply chain
• NAM/KAM involvement: Acting as leading-edge retail business consultants to the store, with 50% of the NAM/KAMs‘  costs covered by the supplier’s advertising budget, if necessary, given their contribution to brand-building in the aisle

Having covered the above basics of good shop-keeping, HMV will then be in a position to apply all the ‘romance’ of the entertainment category (within a category management & shopper-marketing envelope), and really show the grocers how to optimise home entertainment retailing …

Meanwhile, have a really romantic weekend, from the NamNews Team!

Walmart's onshelf availability – moving from 1-stop to full-stop shopping?

With a database ‘as big as the Pentagon’, Walmart are in a better position than most retailers to validate the extent of shopper migration  resulting from on-shelf out-of-stocks.

According to articles in Bloomberg News,  significant numbers of 1-stop shoppers are becoming so frustrated at finding empty shelves that their full-shop needs to be topped up with essential items bought elsewhere… Bloomberg claim to have more than 1,000 emailed complaints signalling that on-shelf availability is worse than is claimed by Walmart, who say that the small sample size does not represent a national picture.

Anecdotal details of the OOS complaints are given in the article, and over 500 comments are appended to the online version.
Moreover, it would appear that the stock is in the store in most cases, but that staff cutbacks mean that refilling of shelves is suffering because available staff are focused on manning cash registers and answering shoppers’ questions…

Most of the complaints were from previously loyal Walmart customers befuddled by what had happened to service at a company they’d once admired for its low prices and wide assortment. Many said they were paying more and driving farther to avoid the local Walmart. Some had developed shopping strategies, including waiting until the last minute to grab ice cream, lest it melt in the lengthy checkout lines.

Given Walmart’s scale, their ‘handful of complaints’ would be a serious issue for lesser retailers.

However, if the company accepts that a complaining customer is someone trying to give the retailer a second chance, it would be a pity if Walmart waited for an impact on the share price, before taking remedial action…

Grocery Code Adjudication - Managing Expectations?

Whilst small and medium-sized suppliers may be encouraged by early signals ref the appointment of the Adjudicator, it should be kept in mind that the ultimate goal is protection of the consumer.

Those that have taken the GSCOP seriously from the beginning accept that retailers (and suppliers) have had three years to establish ‘precedents’ in terms of payment periods (40-90 days), quality specs, delivery conditions and other trading arrangements that now fall within the letter of the Code…. This means that retailers are now compliant, and only proven breaches will cause them problems. Given their £1bn+ scale, the major retailers will be as anxious as suppliers to avoid the distractions of any breaches by rogue buyers at operating level.

Whilst the Adjudicator is now open to receiving feedback from suppliers, any action against a retailer will require the building and winning of a case with all the legal conditions covered off.    In other words, legally watertight evidence will be essential for the success of any resulting action.

According to The Observer, the adjudicator will have two key options available - arbitrating on disputes and investigating complaints made anonymously or by third parties such as the National Farmers Union.
Presumably all such complaints will have to be investigated, aggregated and sufficiently ‘anonymised’ to protect whistle-blowers, in order to prove that a specific retailer has a case to answer on a specific issue.  Hopefully the combination of a ‘quiet word’ and the possibility of adverse publicity will then cause the obvious excesses to be kept in check…

In the meantime, pro-active suppliers need to reassess their working partnerships with the major mults in the light of the GSCOP. Their aim should be to establish an ‘ideal world’ trading relationship, based on  realistic post-financial crisis market conditions, that would allow both parties to function profitably, all things being equal….

This analysis would then form the basis of a robust and negotiated contract,  upon which they are prepared to litigate in the case of any provable breaches, if necessary. The company will then be in a position to clearly establish what are clear breaches of either spirit or letter of the agreement, and ideally will have collected supporting evidence in the process.

It then becomes a decision whether a visit to the Adjudicator or the law courts will be more effective….

In other words, the ball remains firmly in the supplier’s court, where  the primary responsibility lies with NAM and buyer to reach legally ‘bindable’  agreements between committed trading partners, each gaining sufficiently from the relationship that playing fair is more productive than abuse, as always……

Virtual fitting rooms for dogs...

                                                                                                      pic: veinteractive
Virtual fitting room provider, Fits.me, is to expand into the booming pet accessories market with the world’s first virtual fitting room for dogs.  Initially available for dachshunds and greyhounds – two breeds that Fits.me has identified as being the hugely difficult to buy for – the virtual fitting room will help fashion-conscious pet owners buy better fitting clothes for their pooches online.

With demand for pet clothing having soared in recent years, British dog owners already spend over £30m a year to dress and accessorise their four-legged friends

A virtual fitting room for cats is currently in development and Fits.me expects this to be made available for the next April Fool's Day in 2014.