Holland and Barrett....wtf!
Discussion
Jasandjules said:
It may be I am simply not business minded, but the suppliers may be concentrating on their own business rather than H&B? Just a guess.
Food suppliers tend to be overly dependent on a small number of retailer customers, it leads to some pretty shady practices. The large supermarkets have been doing this for years, and to worse levels (and not normally volume related either).I wont use them again, hate this practice.
Lastest big company term against suplliers is a "prebate"....they agree to meet a turnover target and you give them a % of this as a lump sum in advance...getting more and more common....try getting the money back when they dont hit turnover target...
Its poor but common however it can have upsides, if you are making ££££ from H&B then suck it up and reclaim it gradually after the fuss has died down, if (as often) you lose a competitor and your sales increase then its a worthwhile (lucky) process.
Everytime I have had this issue I have accepted the new terms without being overly combative to see how dust settles after the fall out (you can always back out afterwards), every time we have increased business and closer relationship that leads to more profit.
In one case we got a 12 month forecast (3 months fixed) in exchange for the margin erosion and that forecast helped save more than than the discount.
Everytime I have had this issue I have accepted the new terms without being overly combative to see how dust settles after the fall out (you can always back out afterwards), every time we have increased business and closer relationship that leads to more profit.
In one case we got a 12 month forecast (3 months fixed) in exchange for the margin erosion and that forecast helped save more than than the discount.
This happened to us, not saying who, but was a Supermarket.
Got a phone call, went like this:
Client: Hi, need you to reduce the cost of the contract by 25%
Me: Ok, if you re-sign for 5 years I will consider it
Client: No, can't do that
Me: Can you guarantee more business to take up the slack?
Client: No
Me: then I can't justify it
Client: Everyone else has agreed, you are the only one
Me: You signed a support contract for x years, we have employed technicians to fulfil this, we are unable to reduce
Client: Everyone else has
Me: We are not everyone else
Client: You have to
Me: No I don't, happy to cancel the contract and send you a bill for the total amount
Client: Don't be stupid, reduce your costs by 25%
Me: Ok, I will reduce the service by 25%
Client: No, we need the support
Me: Ok, I will send you list of all our technicians, please put a tick next to each one you think we should make redundant up to 25% of the staff, alternatively I will announce a 25% reduction in wages
Client: That's not fair to ask me to do that and unfair on your staff
Me: Do you see the irony?
Client: Yes, we will take your invoice off hold and pay.
Got a phone call, went like this:
Client: Hi, need you to reduce the cost of the contract by 25%
Me: Ok, if you re-sign for 5 years I will consider it
Client: No, can't do that
Me: Can you guarantee more business to take up the slack?
Client: No
Me: then I can't justify it
Client: Everyone else has agreed, you are the only one
Me: You signed a support contract for x years, we have employed technicians to fulfil this, we are unable to reduce
Client: Everyone else has
Me: We are not everyone else
Client: You have to
Me: No I don't, happy to cancel the contract and send you a bill for the total amount
Client: Don't be stupid, reduce your costs by 25%
Me: Ok, I will reduce the service by 25%
Client: No, we need the support
Me: Ok, I will send you list of all our technicians, please put a tick next to each one you think we should make redundant up to 25% of the staff, alternatively I will announce a 25% reduction in wages
Client: That's not fair to ask me to do that and unfair on your staff
Me: Do you see the irony?
Client: Yes, we will take your invoice off hold and pay.
AshW said:
This happened to us, not saying who, but was a Supermarket.
Got a phone call, went like this:
Client: Hi, need you to reduce the cost of the contract by 25%
Me: Ok, if you re-sign for 5 years I will consider it
Client: No, can't do that
Me: Can you guarantee more business to take up the slack?
Client: No
Me: then I can't justify it
Client: Everyone else has agreed, you are the only one
Me: You signed a support contract for x years, we have employed technicians to fulfil this, we are unable to reduce
Client: Everyone else has
Me: We are not everyone else
Client: You have to
Me: No I don't, happy to cancel the contract and send you a bill for the total amount
Client: Don't be stupid, reduce your costs by 25%
Me: Ok, I will reduce the service by 25%
Client: No, we need the support
Me: Ok, I will send you list of all our technicians, please put a tick next to each one you think we should make redundant up to 25% of the staff, alternatively I will announce a 25% reduction in wages
Client: That's not fair to ask me to do that and unfair on your staff
Me: Do you see the irony?
Client: Yes, we will take your invoice off hold and pay.
had similar conversation with well known airline. Got a phone call, went like this:
Client: Hi, need you to reduce the cost of the contract by 25%
Me: Ok, if you re-sign for 5 years I will consider it
Client: No, can't do that
Me: Can you guarantee more business to take up the slack?
Client: No
Me: then I can't justify it
Client: Everyone else has agreed, you are the only one
Me: You signed a support contract for x years, we have employed technicians to fulfil this, we are unable to reduce
Client: Everyone else has
Me: We are not everyone else
Client: You have to
Me: No I don't, happy to cancel the contract and send you a bill for the total amount
Client: Don't be stupid, reduce your costs by 25%
Me: Ok, I will reduce the service by 25%
Client: No, we need the support
Me: Ok, I will send you list of all our technicians, please put a tick next to each one you think we should make redundant up to 25% of the staff, alternatively I will announce a 25% reduction in wages
Client: That's not fair to ask me to do that and unfair on your staff
Me: Do you see the irony?
Client: Yes, we will take your invoice off hold and pay.
"We need you to share the pain, all suppliers 10% cut"
Me: No
Them: You have to all suppliers will have to.
Me: here's my termination notice of contract as per contract.
Them: Ok, we'll stay as is.
Around 2006/7, we inherited a company that published calendars. They were about to go bust and we'd printed all their calendar stocks and was offered the stock and retail contracts in lieu of payment. Plus their main sales guy.
The contracts were with the likes of WHSMith, Woolworth, Asda.. and there were sizeable numbers involved.
The contracts were written in such a way that we had to pay the retailer £3 for every £5 calendar they sold...regardless of the actual price they did sell them for..rather than them pay us a percentage of each sale. So, if they decided on 1st January to mark them down and sell them for a quid each, we still had to pay £3 for each sold.
We did make a tidy sum from it but didn't keep the thing running a second year.
The contracts were with the likes of WHSMith, Woolworth, Asda.. and there were sizeable numbers involved.
The contracts were written in such a way that we had to pay the retailer £3 for every £5 calendar they sold...regardless of the actual price they did sell them for..rather than them pay us a percentage of each sale. So, if they decided on 1st January to mark them down and sell them for a quid each, we still had to pay £3 for each sold.
We did make a tidy sum from it but didn't keep the thing running a second year.
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