Tesco Working To Ensure Booker Is GSCOP Compliant

Tesco is urgently working with buyers at Booker to ensure its newly enlarged business is compliant with GSCOP rules.

With the Code currently only covering the top 10 supermarkets in the UK, Booker’s activities have not previously been covered by the Adjudicator, Christine Tacon.  However, having worked hard to improve its dealings with suppliers since the 2014 accounting scandal, Tesco is reported to have called for a “culture change” amongst buyers in the Booker operation.

Sources close to Tesco, quoted by trade magazine The Grocer, said talks have been held with Booker’s buyers as part of its ‘Joining Forces’ integration programme. They added that Booker’s previous behaviour had been allowed to go “under the radar” as the wholesaler operated outside the scope of GSCOP. However, they said Booker’s tactics as part of Tesco would now flout laws set up to protect suppliers, as it is in effect the same business.

Tacon told The Grocer she that was meeting with Tesco’s management imminently to discuss how Booker would become GSCOP compliant. She is quoted as saying: “I asked Charles Wilson about this on day one of the merger and he said it was day one and too soon. It’s no longer too soon, they are running out of time and I need some answers.”