New dates for NFU cost price workshops

The NFU has added two further dates for its price negotiation workshop series to help growers achieve higher returns.

The new one-day workshops will take place on 4 October and 6 December in Stoneleigh, and are accessible exclusively to NFU members at a 40 per cent discount.

The workshops have been set up at a time when margins are under unprecedented pressure and many growers need to realise increased returns from their supermarket customers in the face of soaring input costs. Delegates will learn negotiation skills and have the opportunity to roleplay typical scenarios that they will face during conversations with buyers.

Keeping calm and learning how to reframe the discussion towards the key objective is central, and delegates will  be taught to develop soft language skills and body language awareness to give them the best chance of success.

Supermarkets are known to employ a range of tactics to avoid, delay or reduce increases in returns. 

The workshops are run by former supermarket senior buyers turned management consultants Ged Futter and David Miles of The Retail Mind. Futter is a former senior buying manager at Asda and director at groceries code training business GSCOP, while Miles is former commercial director at Asda.

“Ged and David are using their expertise to help suppliers navigate buyers’ tricks of the trade,” said NFU horticulture and potatoes adviser Christine McDowell. “The training is based on the premise that this isn’t a negotiation. If you say you need a 7 per cent uplift in cost price, then it’s 7 per cent, not 6.5 per cent.”

Further information on the workshops is available here.