GovWire

The GCA is aware of the considerable challenges facing retailers and suppliers as they work together to ensure customers have access to food and other essentials during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The GCA is also aware of co-ordinated work across government to respond to the situation. Nothing in this position statement is intended to interfere with that in any way.

The GCA is nonetheless able to offer the following guiding principles to assist retailers and suppliers deliver continuity of supply to consumers, as far as this remains possible given significant pressures on staffing and some customer buying habits:

• Nothing in the Groceries Supply Code of Practice (the Code) requires any regulated retailer to break any other legal requirement. The Code should be read compatibly with all other legal obligations placed on regulated retailers.
• The GCA cannot offer a view as to whether current circumstances amount to force majeure.
• From a practical point of view, retailers will want to agree a way with suppliers to meet the most pressing objectives of the situation as it develops. The GCA would expect all parties to work together constructively to achieve this.
• Examples include effective communication on both sides, and an appreciation that e.g. reasonable notice provisions in the Code will need to be considered in light of the rapidly changing situation. Notice periods may need to be short to address challenges at the earliest possible opportunity. Suppliers should not wait to raise issues with retailers.