Speaking at the IFA’s conference on unfair trading practices in the retail sector this week, the UK’s grocery code adjudicator Christine Tacon said she was totally confident retailers in the UK were moving in the right direction in how they treat their suppliers.

Tacon said it was not her ambition to bring retailers “to their knees” but that she simply wanted them to comply with the UK’s grocery conduct code. Tacon and the UK’s grocery code adjudicator’s office came to international attention in January 2016 when they published a report that found Tesco had deliberately delayed payments to suppliers to boost its own quarterly profits.

Tacon told the IFA conference that while a number of serious issues such as margin maintenance, charging suppliers for consumer complaints about their products, and delayed payments had been dealt with effectively, a number of other serious issues were still being worked on with UK retailers.

Tacon said that issues around a practice called drop and drive, which is primarily related to suppliers of chilled foods, was “warming up” for a statutory investigation, while she added she was still getting to the bottom of pay-to-stay payments.

Tacon encouraged Irish agri-food companies supplying produce to UK retailers to engage with her office if they had any issues, as they are covered under the UK grocery code. Tacon added that if suppliers brought her the information, her office would act swiftly to fix the problems in a totally confidential manner.