The Federation of Independent Retailers’ (NFRN’s) National President Stuart Reddish has written to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) calling for an immediate meeting to discuss “legitimate complaints” regarding pricing and availability during the coronavirus outbreak.
The letter addresses the CMA’s guidance about its priorities during Covid 19, which was published on 25 March, with the NFRN stating that “it is accordingly most important that our members (and similar small retailers) are able to secure supplies, and do so at the best prices possible. This is both a matter of fair competition and also of national anti-virus strategy.”
In the letter, Mr Reddish also calls on the CMA to “take immediate steps to insist upon proper proportionality in supplies (based upon past annualised consumption patterns) between multiples, C&Cs and direct supplies to retailers”.
He continues: “We call upon you to insist immediately that where there are genuine staff shortages impacting upon the ability to deliver, suppliers/manufacturers accept offers such as that made by our member to share deliveries with local multiples. “