King said open competition between multiple retailers ensured the best interests of consumers were served in terms of the quality and price of the food and drink they were able to buy.
Speaking during a question-and-answer panel session after presenting the 2012 City Food at the Guildhall in London on the evening of February 15, King claimed an adjudicator would “injure” supermarkets’ ability to fight on behalf of consumers.
Interfering
He said an adjudicator would impede the way that business was transacted between supermarkets and their suppliers and act against consumers’ interests by interfering in the way the market operated.
“It would be unique in our society to implement a constraint on business relationships,” said King. “The vast majority of money that we spend on behalf of our customers we spend with big multinational companies and they do not need protecting.”
Harder time
Another member of the panel, Clive Black, head of research for city analyst Shore Capital, noted that in contrast to the big food manufacturers, which had faired reasonably well during the recession, retailers were having a harder time and were “on very low stock ratings now”.
It was a view supported by Stephen Robertson, director general of the British Retail Consortium, which represents the supermarkets. He highlighted the better margins and return on investment achieved by big suppliers. “Many international suppliers are many times the size of British retailers,” said Robertson.
However, most manufacturers and suppliers in the UK - especially smaller firms without the clout of the big boys - support the introduction of an adjudicator to give teeth to the GSCOP introduced in 2010.