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Food industry must respond to consumer demands for ethical behaviour
Archived article dated Tuesday October 16th 2007
Food retailers and manufacturers need to respond quickly to consumers' increasing demands that they operate ethically, and with a strong focus on sustainability, otherwise they will shop elsewhere.
by Glynn Davis
This was the message delivered by Joanne Denney-Finch, chief executive of IGD, at the recent IGD Convention 2007: “This is the year sustainability went mainstream and retailers and manufacturers need to be more responsive to consumers. These are exciting times and we face momentous decisions. But
However, despite the undoubted popularity of the supermarkets she warned that this would quickly be lost and consumers would “vote with their feet” if companies fail to address the key issues that include protecting the environment, supporting producers in the UK, and reducing packaging waste.“You can't transform overnight but you can reduce packaging waste, energy and water usage, and food waste. Excess packaging is now a concern and we will see more people stripping off packaging in-store,” she forecasts.
Rather than potentially suffering from a growing disenchantment among consumers if action in not taken to relate to their concerns Denney-Finch says retailers could “play a lead role in creating a better society”. And in the process they could move from being “trusted” by the majority of people in the country to being “loved”.
To achieve this she believes companies need to “live by the highest ethical standards” or else lose out to competitors: “Many small companies have seized on this. It needs to be built into all brands.”
She says as many as 57 per cent of consumers are now in favour of goods being phased out if they overly contribute to global warming. Companies therefore have some tough decisions to make. They also have the added responsibility of consumers increasingly delegating their decision-making on what foodstuffs to eat to retailers and manufacturers, which means they must improve the information they provide on labels.
“They want it to be made simple for them so they are delegating it. Shoppers say they are bombarded with issues from a variety of sources and that they need clear and simple messages,” explains Denney-Finch.
Tagged as: food | grocery | igd
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