The UK government has reappointed Mark White as Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) for a further three-year period.
White, who was appointed GCA on 31 October 2020 after serving as deputy from July 2020, will continue his next term when his current one ends on 30 October this year.
Prior to being GCA, he served as foodservice company Compass Group’s general counsel, company secretary and as an executive board member.
White’s main responsibility will continue to be regulating relationships between the UK’s largest grocery retailers and their direct suppliers by encouraging, monitoring and enforcing compliance with the Groceries Supply Code of Practice.
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During his current term, White has overseen 14 UK supermarkets, including Amazon which was the last retailer to be bound by the Groceries Supply Code of Practice in July 2022.
In the same year, he held a series of meetings with retailers’ code compliance officers over alleged delayed payments and an increase in cost price increase (CPI) requests which at the time, were said to be risking the “survival” of some suppliers.
Last year, White urged supermarkets to take action against buyers that demand that their suppliers “pay to stay” on their shelves – a move which was being interpreted as a warning shot to Tesco after it introduced new supplier fulfilment fees in March 2023, which were aimed at getting suppliers to pay for using its online and Booker wholesale services.
At the time, he said: “I am determined to ensure that all 14 retailers are treating suppliers fairly and lawfully.
“I told all the code compliance officers that retailers generally should not be requiring suppliers to take certain actions, such as paying to remain a supplier, where that is not permitted under the code.
”If I believe that a retailer may have required an action that it should not have, I will challenge them to provide evidence that this is not the case.”
