I see bad news - if you also take into account that the leading Greenseal trial factory Ferndale Foods were cut out and Northern Foods - as is suggested - wins the contract - it looks bad for SE0 IMO.
As Scrutable has noted at AFN - Greenseal requires no change in manpower - but Northern Foods are taking on a massive increase in manpower - meaning likely they are simply going to ramp up production through shiftwork - not through any large amount of new machines (new machines are ultra high speed) - and definitely no reference to Greenseal conversions or cap ex in winning the tender - and with Ferndale a Greenseal trial site - and Ferndale being kicked out - it looks to me like Asda want cheapest price of supply and do not care about keeping with the SE0 gentlemans agreement - bad news - could well be - potentially we may see SE0 cancel the exclusive contract with Asda due to failings in order conversion levels - cancel Asda - then you can forget Walmart - and with Walmart and 900 conversions in the SE0 price - it would collapse.
All IMO
http://media.netpr.pl/notatka_42591.html
2005-09-09
Major Food Supplier Seeks Protection Under Supermarket Code of Practice
PRNewswire LONDON September 9
Asda, the supermarket chain, is sticking by a 12-week notice period to start the delisting of the entire output, valued at GBP40m per annum, of Erith-based Ferndale Foods, its primary ready meal supplier.
LONDON, September 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Asda, the supermarket chain, is sticking by a 12-week notice period to start the delisting of the entire output, valued at GBP40m per annum, of Erith-based Ferndale Foods, its primary ready meal supplier.
This is in spite of requests from Ferndale's management, and from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to go to mediation and to suspend the delisting decision while this is in process. Ferndale believes that a longer and more reasonable notice period will allow it to find alternative customers and so protect the jobs of its 600 employees.
James Logan, Ferndale's Managing Director, said: "We were surprised because there was no price tender and at the time we were assured we had done nothing wrong".
However, while Asda has eventually agreed to go to mediation (some five weeks after the OFT's request), it has still not agreed to do this under the Supermarket Code of Practice nor has it agreed to the OFT's request to suspend simultaneously the delisting notice, without which any mediation will be valueless as the business will be lost before the process starts.
Mr Logan said: "This is a clear case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted."
As a result of the uncertainty, Ferndale's management yesterday [8/9/05] issued their staff with consultation notices in contemplation of wholesale redundancies over the next few weeks and the closure of its chilled ready meals facility.
Asda is currently locked in a legal wrangle with the OFT and is trying to prove that the Code, which requires Asda to be both reasonable and to act in good faith, does not apply. "At the moment there appears to be a lack of reasonableness and good faith. This is the Code's first real test, but its regulator appears to be powerless in enforcing the spirit of it on Asda," Mr Logan said.
"After two months of analysis, the OFT still has not formally decided whether a delisting of GBP40m of business to start after 12 weeks notice even comes under the Code, let alone in getting Asda to suspend its decision pending mediation. But if this doesn't come under the Code, what does?"
"It appears that a business that, since 1996, has been the primary supplier of chilled ready meals to a major UK supermarket, has invested millions of pounds in its production plant so it can offer in excess of 90 product lines, has grown its workforce to 600 in a designated economically-deprived area, can be threatened with seeing it all disappear without any protection. In our view, the Code is flawed and the regulator is too weak to enforce the spirit of it," he added.
There has been much discussion in the food industry about the effectiveness of the Supermarket Code. The OFT's audit of the Code earlier this year concluded that it appeared to be working effectively.
Issued on behalf of Ferndale Foods by International Public Relations Partners, 39 King Street, London WC2E 8JS
Ferndale Foods