GCA driving change, making an impact

Author: John Giles FDA of the CIM President, 2017/18

In London, on Wednesday 21 March, we received a great presentation from Christine Tacon who heads up the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA). The GCA oversees the relationship between direct suppliers of food and drink to the top 10 retailers in the UK.

Christine gave a powerful and informative presentation for almost 40 minutes and then engaged in a further 30 minutes of Q & A with a lively audience. She touched on a wide range of subjects, including the background to the creation of the GCA, its role, what it has achieved so far and what she sees the challenges for the GCA in the future.

She also ran through the latest annual survey carried out by the GCA on the experiences of UK and international food/drink companies in dealing with the main UK retailers and how this appears to have changed in many cases for the better over the last few years. 

We are very grateful that Christine has allowed us to post to this web site a copy of her presentation, 'Groceries Code Adjudicator Driving Change, Making an Impact'.

This was a really good evening. Christine is a highly influential person in the UK supply chain. Demonstrating our strategy to attract big hitting speakers to our events, that in many cases, you wouldn’t normally get to hear. Christine was very frank and open about her role at the GCA and what she can and can’t do within this.

Thanks as always to CIM FDA members and their guests  who came along to support this event and for our colleagues at MINTEL for the generous use of their excellent facilities.

I hope to see you at our next event on 6 June in London at Mintel's Offices when we have, Paul Kenward, MD of British Sugar speaking to us on 'British Sugar - evolution in a changing market'

View Christine's presentation here.