MorePeople hosted an industry dinner at The George in Stamford on 3rd March, which was attended by around twenty senior leaders from within the industry. As well as enjoying an exquisite dinner and great company, the guests also had the invaluable opportunity of hearing from the Groceries Code Adjudicator, Christine Tacon, before she steps down from the role in June after seven successful years in post.
Christine highlighted how important face-to-face interactions with suppliers have been throughout her time as GCA. These have allowed her to really build a picture of the key challenges faced by suppliers when dealing with supermarkets, enabling her to feed this back collectively and encourage self-regulation.
The annual GCA survey demonstrates significant improvements for suppliers over the seven years and Christine believes that collaboration and taking a blame free approach have been key to this positive trend. The final survey while Christine is in the role is now live and she is keen to encourage as many suppliers as possible to take part. You can complete the survey on the YouGov website between now and 29 March.
Another key message was that all suppliers need to be trained on the code to help ensure that supermarket behaviours continue to change for the better.
Andrew Fitzmaurice, Managing Director of MorePeople and host for the evening, said afterwards:
"We have hosted several of these industry dinners now and each time they prove valuable to everyone in the room. By keeping them intimate, you have the chance to engage with all of the guests and get a real insight into the day-to-day challenges that our industry is facing."
"Christine is always an excellent speaker and I know she equally values the opportunity to hear first hand about experiences from business leaders in a relaxed atmosphere. We were delighted to be able to facilitate the discussions and look forward to hosting similar events in the future."
