A UK retail consultant has said that UK producers could work supermarket planning rules to their advantage by setting up farmers’ co-operative stores.
Peter Wynne-James, md of Malvern-based MPC Associates, an authority on out-of-town shopping in Europe, said: “While the Competition Commission’s relaxed rules benefit supermarket groups, they could also present new opportunities for the development of large specialist farmers’ co-operative stores solely concerned with the marketing of British home-grown food. Although these stores would be large, they would not be based on the format of traditional supermarkets, nor the limited skills of existing farmers’ markets. They could in effect become outlets for the best in British food. Presentation would be a key factor, as would accessibility.”
Under Wynne-James’s proposals, farm co-operative retail developments would be regionalised.
He said: “It will be necessary to replan distribution networks for reducing the current levels of traffic congestion and carbon emissions throughout the UK. It should also be remembered that unlike the UK, French hypermarket companies encourage their store managers to order home-grown French food direct from local farmers. This creates greater national distribution efficiency, minimising the amount of food miles.”
The consultant says his ideas are not new: “I remember presenting a film to 400 farmers in Evesham in 1973 showing the development of hypermarkets in France. At the time I told them ‘the only way you will combat out-of-town supermarkets is to form yourselves into farming
co-operatives, as by this means you will have greater control of your market’. Unfortunately, local farmers could not agree on losing their personal identity under the banner of a farmers’ co-operative and MPC’s proposals were turned down.”
Wynne-James believes that growers in the UK need to fight back and take control of their own destiny and is inviting growers and farmers interested in his proposals to get in touch.
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