Rationalised thinking

Rationalisation has become more than a dirty word for some of the major players in the UK’s fresh produce industry. The country’s leading retailers have all reduced their supplier bases significantly in the last decade, as the economic and competitive realities of being a 21st century contender force fewer buyers to trust fewer suppliers to fill their fresh produce aisles. The last six weeks have seen the axe fall on several large-scale suppliers at Tesco and Sainsbury’s. But Tommy Leighton asks, is the most radical reform perhaps still to come?