Tesco's Peter Fry took part in a lively retail panel discussion at the Eurofruit Congress in Amsterdam, and gave his views on a number of the key issues affecting the European retail sector.

The heavyweight panel also comprised Fred Hofmans, of German retailer Edeka, Sven-Ake Nordqvist of multinational giant Royal Ahold and Peter Hostens, of another behemoth Carrefour Belgium.

Category management became the principle focus of the session and Fry told delegates: 'There is not a formula. We are looking for partnerships that get us the standard of product we require at least cost.' He said that the number of companies in the Tesco supplier network has dropped from 400 to around 100 and the retailer's view on the role of its suppliers is clearly defined. 'Each relationship with a supplier is special for us. The reason we have suppliers is that they do a very good job on logistics - that is their reason to be. We have made a massive investment in our buying resource. Other companies have chosen to reduce the number of buyers they have, we don't believe in that approach.

'We have a bespoke base of specialist suppliers and the challenge in the industry is not with these sorts of suppliers, but the generalists that supply everybody. In the UK, the market is segmenting and specific suppliers are targeting specific retailers - we believe that is the best way forward for the industry.' Asked what Tesco was looking for in a supplier, Fry added: 'We have a set of key product indicators and if they are not all met, there is no relationship. Our customers are unforgiving and whatever product they demand, we need to supply it.' From the floor, Nigel West of Tesco exotics supplier Utopia said. 'Category management is generally successful in the UK, but Tesco sees it differently to its competitors. It has found the best suppliers and eradicated the poorer ones. It has brought us closer to the supermarket. The critical thing for me is to make sure that the grower is profitable and successful and the only way to ensure that is through open-book accounting.' There were differing views on category management from the panel. While Nordqvist is a believer, Hofmans and Hostens were less positive about its merits. 'It is not at all important,' said Hostens. 'I don't believe in making a supplier responsible for the sourcing and logistics and just delivering the product to me - I want to have contact along the supply chain, and particularly with the growers.' Hofmans went even further, questioning the need for category captains and for category management. He told The Greenery: 'You stick to your Dutch products - we can buy products from other countries through local sources.' Tackling the topic of food safety and assurance schemes, the panel unanimously called for harmonisation of the assurance process. 'Success for us would be that our supplier base would only be obliged to go through one auditing process,' said Fry. 'We have worked with Nature's Choice for 10 years and we are not going to give that up. But harmonisation is our aim.' He was stumped just once during the session, when a Spanish exporter asked, 'what is quality?' Fry was initially lost for words, but eventually gave a definition of sorts. 'Quality in the UK is firstly visual. Our customers will not buy something that is not 100 per cent what they want. That means no bruises on apples or spots on bananas, and no nectarines they can't eat.'

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