As our feature this week illustrates (p24), you, the industry, can take statistical data or leave it.

Supermarket suppliers, of course, are obliged to stay in touch with the evolution of the product lines in their immediate category. They will mostly chart the progress of the category in competing supermarkets. But it remains rare for category managers to peer too far outside of their day-to-day confines for a more rounded view of the fresh produce market.

In my experience, it is fair to say that the companies that best disseminate the information available to them tend to have their fingers on the pulse, giving them a marketing headstart.

Whenever we publish articles on financial performance studies carried out on companies within the industry, however, we hear a chorus of people claiming that the findings don’t apply to them. Plimsoll’s assertion that half of the industry is on the breakeven line will no doubt draw a similar response.

Is that because the strugglers don’t want to admit the difficulties they face? Of course, I wouldn’t blame them for that. Or is it, more disturbingly, that many companies are unaware of their plight? For that, there is little excuse.

I suspect there is an element of truth in both answers to the question. Statistically speaking though, it’s a fair bet that the companies in the first group are more likely to extricate themselves from their current hole.