Speciality Food Magazine

While some retailers have benefitted from the bad weather by being the only local shop that customers could get to, I suspect the majority, have lost varying amounts of money. Even Tesco has admitted losing £250 million in revenue. Ocado sales were also down 5% which suggests independents will generally be in more deficit than this. However, let’s look forward. I hope customers who haven’t been out much will now have more cash to spend in our tills.

What has been interesting over the last two weeks is staff dedication - some of our home delivery drivers have even used their own 4 x 4s. It's a pity that many of our suppliers (who rely on third parties to deliver their goods) haven’t had the ability to keep their customers stocked up in the bad weather. It is impossible for us to give good service, when the lackadaisical attitude shown by some of our suppliers beggars belief. Promised delivery dates are ignored, products arrive with short shelf lives and orders arrive incomplete – and some suppliers claim that they never make any mistakes! Astonishing!

As a fine food distributor we are dedicated to maintaining the highest service levels. And because the problem is not getting any better, we have now created a new position of 'supply chain manager'. This position will ensure our suppliers give us as good service as we are aiming to give our customers. If independent retailers are to maintain the growth they have experienced over the last few years we must get more professional and slicker in our supply chains.