Asda has remained the poorest performer among Britain's major supermarkets in terms of its treatment of suppliers, according to the UK grocery regulator's annual sector survey, which was published on Monday.
Some 8% of Asda's suppliers said the British arm of Walmart 'rarely' or 'never complied' with the Grocery Supply Code of Practice, the 2018 survey, carried out by YouGov for the Groceries Code Adjudicator, found.
Though that was an improvement on last year's figure of 11%, it still made Asda the laggard of Britain's big four grocers.
Proposed Takeover
The issue of supermarkets' treatment of suppliers has gained prominence in light of Sainsbury's' proposed £7.3 billion takeover of Asda.
Sainsbury's dropped from first place among the big four in last year's survey to second place with 95% of suppliers saying it complied with the code either 'consistently well' or 'mostly' and 5% saying it rarely did.
Market leader Tesco was the best performer with figures of 97% and 3% respectively, while Morrisons was third with 93% and 7%.
The survey found discounter Aldi was the most compliant with the code across the whole grocery industry for the fifth year in a row.
News by Reuters, edited by ESM. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
