Business Leaders' Forum
Paul Wilkinson
The food industry took a “big knock” over consumers’ trust in the supply chain after the horsemeat scandal, according to the chair of Food Manufacture’s Business Leaders’ Forum Paul Wilkinson.
Wilkinson predicted a fall in food price inflation, driven by high grain stocks and described Tesco as “no longer the king of grocers” during his opening address to delegates.
“Without any inflation, the stalling volumes will make sales growth pretty elusive for most. Anyone with a strong commodity driven price increase should be welcomed at Cheshunt [Tesco HQ] and other buying offices as the saviour.
“The crown must go now to one of the same name as Sainsbury for outperforming the market”. At Morrisons, the consultants who supported vertical integration, rather than diversifying the estate must now be destroying all relevant documentation,” he said.
“Of course, they were correct, if the core assumption was that growth is guaranteed. But when sales are falling, the double whammy of lost retail margin and manufacturing overhead recovery really bites.”
