Dispute resolution

We help you to resolve any disputes you have with your supermarket customers enabling you to maintain healthy relationships.

GSCOP Dispute Resolution

When a GSCOP issue arises, it is often difficult to know what to do & how to deal with it without damaging the relationship.

We offer solutions to the issue which maintain the relationship and also provide you with the protection that the Code was set up to provide.

Our advice can be either over the phone, email or sitting next to you when you discuss with a Buyer or Code Compliance Officer.  Every situation is different but we can provide you with the right way through.

We have saved our clients over £11m by using GSCOP in the way that it was intended, to protect the Suppliers

If you believe that you have a GSCOP issue then please contact us.

Forensic Audit Defence

In an effort to recover ‘lost’ money some of the Retailers employ 3rd Party Auditors to forensically review their books, specifically the laptops of their Buyers.

Some of the claims have been in excess of £500,000 and are often unexpected for the Supplier.

What can you do?

12 of the 13 Retailers covered by GSCOP have signed up to a voluntary agreement to limit auditing of Supplier’s trading accounts to no more than the current and two previous financial years. Sainsburys are the only one of the Designated Retailer who have not signed up to this agreement.

The Groceries Code Adjudicator said that “Suppliers were being asked for significant sums of money, with the burden of proof falling on them to show that any discrepancies were not valid claims.” She said that the move meant further protection for Suppliers who faced supermarkets using forensic audits ‘proactively to make claims against suppliers for historic invoicing errors or omisions’.

To find out how you can protect yourself against aggressive 3rd party auditors please contact us.

£24m

Savings of in excess of £24 million.

100%

100% success rate with dispute resolution.

Related case studies
Getting a Cost Price Increase through the trade

Supplier contacted with a need to ensure a significant cost increase was delivered across the trade. Team were mixed experience and covered retail, wholesale and food service. Varied levels of negotiation training.

Factory closure avoided

Supplier received twelve week’s notice for full de-list, £18m of turnover & over 50% of site production volume. Products were innovative, award winning & exclusive to the Retailer.

Better negotiation capability across group of businesses

Client wanted their procurement team to have negotiation training to equip colleagues with the skills to build & maintain strong relationships with Suppliers & partners.

Complete de-list of client avoided

We were contacted by a client in January 2019 who had been given notice that their whole business was being de-listed and moved to a competitor. They had been given four months’ notice that the business would be lost after supplying a Retailer for over 10 years.