Wal-Mart Asda to listen to suppliers

In an exclusive interview with The Grocer, the Chief Executive of Asda, Andy Bond, has said that the main way that the retailer could help suppliers was "to keep growing our business". But, he added, if suppliers were having financial difficulties, Asda could in "certain very exceptional circumstances provide funding. There is one particular supplier that we have a very good relationship with, that we are helping out financially," he said. "It is providing a unique proposition for us but we have also been working with this company for 40 years and that has emotion attached to it." Bond rejected allegations that supermarkets were putting pressure on suppliers to give them better terms, and said that where suppliers were currently struggling it was often for financing reasons rather than because of poor operational profitability. Asda was committed to supporting suppliers if they ran their businesses well, he insisted. "If companies are in financial difficulties because they are badly run, they deserve to go out of business. We are not a charity," he said. "But it is not in our interest for companies to go bust. We will talk openly to any company in financial difficulties."

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