The Facts of Life - Perhaps Not Quite as Malcolm Walker Sees Them

In a recent interview with the Daily Telegraph, Iceland Foods Limited's Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Walker dismissed the new Supermarket Code of Conduct - and its proposed ombudsman - as a waste of time, and stated that Iceland would be doing 'the bare minimum' to comply with the new Groceries Supply Code of Practice.

He also dismissed the bullying of of small suppliers by large retailers (and the bullying of smaller retailers by big suppliers) as 'a fact of life'.

The story was picked up by the Forum of Private Business, which will be writing to Mr. Walker to 'express its concerns at his comments'. It will also be asking him to sign up the Government's Prompt Payment Code which, as you probably know, was launched to encourage large businesses to pay small suppliers promptly.

I do, of course, wish the Forum every success in its endeavours to impress upon Mr. Walker that his attitude is irresponsible and wholly unacceptable - but I think I might possibly rely on a larger forum to do that.

The Daily Telegraph has a very large readership. The Forum of Private Business has quite a large membership. There are Blogs, Tweets, Credit Circles, and unofficial grapevines - and an awful lot of victims of the sort of bullying that Mr. Walker is prepared to accept as 'a fact of life'.

Word tends to get around - and bad news travels particularly fast.

Anybody here remember Gerald Ratner?