Growers should take a closer look at their own operations rather than blaming supermarkets for all the industry’s problems, QV Foods’ sales and marketing director Simon Martin has claimed.
Martin told the FPJ West Midlands conference that suppliers needed to work together with supermarkets and know when to say ‘no’. “As an industry we all seem to blame the retailer first,” he said. “For us it’s about going through the process with them.”
Martin also fired a broadside at suppliers who were pursuing a strategy of “going for market share with unsustainable prices” and subsequently not making any money and putting pressure on category value. “Someone is putting a price of 20p a stick on celery for a whole season, and someone else is offering 35p for a head of cauliflower. These prices don’t exist,” he said.
“Blaming the retailer is the easiest thing to do. If prices like these are being thrown at them, what are they going to do? But they are starting to see through it.”
QV Foods would continue to grow and invest in NPD, Martin insisted. The company will launch two “massive” new brands in 2011 on the back of the success of the Inspire range, he added.
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