The Live Wire



Press Release

FSB shocked at OFT Chief’s lack of concern for UK firms

Tuesday 16 May 2006

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has written to the Chief Executive of the Office of Fair Trading, John Fingleton, seeking a meeting and clarification of comments that he made in the Sunday press.

Mr Fingleton is reported to have said that he is ready to see small British suppliers squeezed out of business by powerful supermarkets so long as savings are passed on to consumers.

Mr Fingleton also dismissed the idea that the supermarket Code of Conduct should be rigorously policed despite the fact that the Prime Minister re-iterated his support for the code on March 8th in the House of Commons. The code of conduct was set up as a voluntary code to ensure the fair treatment of suppliers by the supermarkets.

Clive Davenport, FSB National Trade and Industry Chairman, said:

“I was shocked at Mr Fingleton’s reported comments on Sunday. It shows a terrible lack of understanding of what is going on in the grocery market. His view that consumers only value price and do not look at product quality, local produce or service quality is misplaced. Effective competition always takes in more factors than just cost.

“Supermarket suppliers suffer from late payment of invoices, unilateral changes to contract terms and payment below the cost of production. An effective regulator would be seeking to put a stop to this rather than ignoring it.

“Bringing in goods from abroad will be more expensive in the long term, because of higher transport costs. Once there are no UK-based competitors left there will be no pressure to keep costs down and it will also lead to a rise in pollution from more delivery vehicle journeys.

“For the Chief Executive of the Office of Fair Trading to be taking a position that price is the be all and end all is inexplicable. For him to be complacent about the future of UK firms is even worse. I look forward to meeting with him soon to attempt to set the record straight on this vital issue to British consumers, businesses and their employees.”



Press releases, papers and documents published on this page are the intellectual property of an organisation unrelated to Central Lobby. We promote their parliamentary and political campaigning activities as they are subscribers to the Central Lobby service.

As such, Central Lobby does not edit, endorse, or attempt to balance the opinions expressed on this page. The content of press releases and other such types of content are the responsibility of the originating organisation.

Federation of Small Businesses

Federation of Small Businesses

More from Dods

© Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd