King challenges trade to build trust in three areas
He was speaking at the British Retail Consortium’s annual symposium at London’s Lancaster London hotel, which also included speeches from representatives of Tesco and the Co-operative Group.
In terms of trading, King referred to the Office of Fair Trading’s code of practice instigated to ensure supermarkets did not artificially raise on-shelf prices to make later cuts seem like bargains.
He said the industry had to take great care not to mislead shoppers, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
“All of us will have to answer in the coming weeks and months whether that code of practice, being something we have signed up to, is something that we’re truly living by.
'An issue of trust'
“Again, it’s an issue of trust. Why wouldn’t we as retailers want to see the value we offer our customers? Do we set out to confuse them on value? Absolutely not.”
Aside from the horsemeat scandal, the workers who had been injured and killed in April by the garment factory collapse in Bangladesh had again highlighted corporate social responsibility issues, said King.
“It isn’t just far flung places like Bangladesh that are causing consumers to question whether we [the industry] are worthy of trust. Tomorrow there is an Early Day Motion [in Parliament] on slave labour in the UK.”
Finally, the horsemeat controversy had raised questions about the provenance of products that needed answering, said King.
“Horsemeat is where we have to start. It’s an issue for all. It has fundamentally challenged customers’ trust in the supply chain.”
King said claims of 100% traceability were hard to define, but that Sainsbury believed it had robust systems in place that had prevented meat products tainted with horsemeat from being found in its stores.
'Got lucky'
But he said consumers were asking whether those not directly affected by the crisis were trading honestly or whether they had simply “got lucky” and had not been found out.
"Horsemeat was not an issue for everybody in the industry. We didn’t have horsemeat in Sainsbury and many others could say that – but it is an issue for all of us because it has fundamentally challenged customer’s trust in the supply chains on which we and they depend.”
The fact that the grocery code adjudicator Christine Tacon, who began her role yesterday, had been appointed showed trust had been an issue within the grocery supply chain for some time, said King.
It would not be enough simply to conform to the law – this was something consumers expected anyway. The entire grocery supply chain needed to show it was behaving according to ethical criteria, he said.
He cited research from think tank IGD indicating the amount of consumers trusting that British food companies' food was safe to eat, drink or use had recovered to about 80% after the horsemeat crisis. “80% isn’t anywhere near where we need to be,” he said.
