Stobart warns of BOGOF supply chain strain
A Stobart Group spokesman told FoodManufacture.co.uk that the comments, initially made back in May when ceo Andrew Tinkler gave a lengthy interview to a journalist – were “not meant to cause a storm” and were mentioned alongside other pressures.
Short notice issue
“But it is one of the challenges facing us, it’s true,” he said, adding that short notice from supermarkets about BOGOF offers was the real problem, where it stopped the haulier from arranging other pick-ups after the delivery of food.
“You might be told on Monday that that on Tuesday you will need to put several more trailers onto a job – say delivering Corn Flakes to Tesco.
“You might have six extra drops into Tesco, but then you have six extra trailers that are not filled on the way home.”
Tinkler said in May that BOGOF demand was reducing advances made by Stobart in cutting the number of miles its fleet runs with empty trailers.
He asked retailers to appreciate the volatile effects that bulk buying had on suppliers, given the former’s prioritisation of the supply of products on two-for-one offers.
BOGOF’s have increasingly come under attack from other quarters in recent years, most notably after the the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) published the report ‘Food Matters: One Year On’ in mid 2009.
This suggested replacing two-for-one deals on short-life, perishable food items with half-prices offers to cut UK consumer food waste, which the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), which partners food businesses to cut waste, estimated at around 8.3m tonnes per year in November 2009.
WRAP investigates promotions
However, DEFRA denied subsequent media reports that it was considering legislating on the issue, and in 2009 the European Court of Justice ruled that Member States do not have the power to ban such promotions, which are outlawed under the relevant directive.
A WRAP spokesman said the organisation had been discussing with retailers how food is sold on promotion, "in order to make it easy for consumers to take full advantage of offers, while reducing risk of unnecessary waste", but no research had yet linked different types of promotion with food waste.
He said WRAP had begun research accordingly, to inform retailers, the UK government and public: "The project will identify the types of promotions used by retailers on a range of foods (including fresh fruit and veg, diary and bakery products) over the last 12 months, and provide insights on how products bought on promotion are stored, used as well as how much and what is thrown away. Results will be available towards the end of this year."
Nonetheless, he said retailers had responded positively to WRAP's guidance on promotions, with several undertaking trials of alternative offers such as 'Buy One Get One Free Later', and reviewing more generally how promotions are used with perishable products.
