The “old assumptions” about how the multiples conduct business within the UK “no longer apply”, Morrisons’ group corporate services director Martyn Jones has claimed.
He addressed delegates from throughout the food sector supply chain at the EFFP Conference in London on Tuesday, and he called for retailers to pull the supply chain together.
Jones said retailers had to concentrate on the “three Cs” - customer, cost and collaboration - ahead of the challenges the UK food sector is facing, such as food and water security as well as long-term sustainability.
He told a 150-strong audience: “These three elements are essential components to finding new ways of working together at a time of economic and environmental change. We also have to absorb the impact without passing it on to the customers.
“Each part of the link relies on the next to increase efficiency. We need to talk to each other and understand the process, every step of the way. The end consumer is not shy about talking back and if we don’t listen they don’t shout or scream - it’s far worse; they take their custom elsewhere.”
Jones pointed out that the conference had focused on the global issues facing the sector, like population growth, climate change and increasing production costs, but that the solutions seemed to be obtainable locally.
“The problems are global, but the solutions are local,” he said. “There needs to be a closer co-operation between farmers and suppliers… We can’t control climate change and cost, but communication and efficiency are the things we can control. To be future proof, we need to share the best practice to share the costs. The retailer has an opportunity to bring the supply chain together.”
He also highlighted that Morrisons customers are buying more British product than five years ago, with only five per cent of those customers purchasing the goods because they believed local or British was a cheaper option.
“People buy British because they are interested in where their food comes from or it’s out of principle because they want to support the British farming industry,” Jones added.
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