Forecasts, Fairness or Fairy Dust:
Will the ACCC's 'Enhanced Supplier Negotiation' Plan Actually Shift the Balance?
The ACCC’s supermarket report landed last week with a satisfying thud — and buried in its 200-plus pages of market analysis, margin musings, and shrinkflation shaming, there’s a curious little gem titled “Enhanced Supplier Negotiations.”
To the untrained eye, it sounds encouraging. Uplifting, even. The gist? Supermarkets should, in the ACCC’s view, start treating suppliers less like expendable cost centres and more like actual partners. This includes:
Sharing detailed supply forecasts so producers can plan with some degree of confidence (imagine that).
Bringing greater transparency to weekly tender processes, which, as it stands, are about as clear as a Woolies’ markdown sticker on a wet lettuce.
Reducing the use of last-minute price cuts and arbitrary volume changes, unless it’s a matter of locusts, flooding, or biblical apocalypse.
For anyone who’s been on the receiving end of a “Sorry, we're only taking half the order this week” at 4:59pm on a Friday, this all sounds delightful, rational and humane...But here’s the rub: “recommendation” is a very polite word for please behave better, but only if you fancy it. The ACCC, for all its efforts, doesn’t have the legislative teeth to enforce any of this yet — not unless government acts on these recommendations and brings in enforceable codes or penalties with actual sting.
And so, suppliers are left squinting hopefully at the horizon, wondering:
Will Coles and Woolworths voluntarily improve supplier communication? Or will they give it the same treatment as “supporting local growers” — a slogan that works brilliantly in TVCs, but often disappears faster than a free sample tray in-stores?
To be fair (and that’s hard for me), if this recommendation gets proper traction, it could lead to a more civilised retail ecosystem. One where:
Forecasting allows suppliers to manage risk instead of absorbing it.
Tenders are won on quality and value, not relationships and guesswork.
The supplier-retailer dynamic finally shifts from one-sided squeeze to mutually beneficial transaction.
In short: the ACCC’s recommendations are welcome. But whether they shift the balance of power is up to what happens next. The supermarket giants will likely smile, nod, and say the right things. What matters is what they do when no one's watching.