NFRN National President Alan Smith (pictured) said: “We are less than three weeks into the New Year but already I discover that my members are being treated as second class citizens in a market that is dependent on independent newsagents for sales. This is completely unacceptable and we are demanding answers from all the parties involved.”
He continued: “How can wholesalers and publishers justify giving supermarkets terms that are 2.5 per cent higher than those given to independent newsagents when the former pick and choose which partworks they will sell and are unwilling to either shop save or home deliver. It is totally unfair.”
This latest revelation, says the NFRN, comes hot on the heels of a catalogue of complaints against wholesalers and partwork publishers for missing numbers, poor allocation processes and underhand marketing techniques which offer consumers extra gift incentives but only on condition that they purchase by subscription rather than from their local store.
According to the NFRN, the improved terms came to light after an NFRN member in Southampton received the supermarket’s delivery paperwork by mistake which showed the supermarket receiving 25 per cent for two partwork collections compared to the industry standard of 22.5 per cent.
