Success factors in the fresh produce supply chain: insights from the UK

Fearne, Andrew; Hughes, David

doi:10.1108/13598549910279567

Cited by 176 publications

(169 citation statements)

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“…This is particularly relevant given the twin conclusions of past research that, firstly, the industry lags in the monitoring and control of business results (LeBruto et al, 1997;Mann et al, 1999a), and secondly, powerful retailers treat suppliers' cost management systems as an important criterion when developing supply chain relationships (Fearne and Hughes, 1999). Our findings are based on the analysis of 122 questionnaires completed by management accountants.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As expected, the majority of companies apply product profitability analysis frequently; what is perhaps more interesting is that 51% indicated that customer profitability analyses are conducted either often or very often. Relative to other industries this might be considered high, but is perhaps a reflection of the high concentration of the food and drinks market; Fearne and Hughes (1999) report that the top four multiples account for two thirds of UK grocery sales. − We found scepticism about DCF investment appraisal as compared with earnings-based or payback methods.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Management accounting practices in the British food and drinks industry

Abdel-Kader

Luther

2006

British Food Journal

117

119

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Acknowledgement:The authors would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers and participants at the EIASM conference on new directions in management accounting: innovations in practice and research (Brussels December 2002) for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Financial support from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants is acknowledged with gratitude. ABSTRACTPurpose -This paper investigates and reports on the management accounting practices in the British food and drinks industry.Design/methodology/approach -The data is generated by a large-scale postal questionnaire which was informed by preliminary interviews. Further interviews were carried out to aid interpretation of the responses. Descriptive statistics on the importance and frequency of use of individual practices provide the basis for discussion.Findings -Direct costing is widely practised and important, by contrast with activity-based costing and full absorption costing. Despite the limitations of conventional budgets, they remain a central management accounting 'pillar' and are frequently used in 'what if?' analyses. The balanced scorecard and other non-financial performance measures are perceived to be important but never or rarely used by 40% of companies. Product profitability analyses are frequently applied, and, surprisingly, the profitability of supplying individual customers is frequently calculated by over 50% of the population. Respondents were sceptical about sophisticated DCF investment appraisals.Practical implications -Traditional management accounting is 'alive and well' but there are indications of likely increased use of: information concerning the cost of quality; nonfinancial measures relating to employees and analyses of competitors' strengths and weaknesses. There is evidence of a gap between current textbooks and actual practices.Originality/value -The survey provides a unique detailed examination of actual management accounting practices and an indication of future trends.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Management accounting practices in the British food and drinks industry

Abdel-Kader

Luther

2006

British Food Journal

117

119

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“…Other consumers may lack the time to visit specialist farmers' markets and farm shops or consider the local and regional foods too expensive; they also may not be able to rely on the consistent availability of local and regional foods. In this sense, fresh produce has become a destination category; it is one of the few product categories for which consumers will switch stores (Fearne and Hughes, 1999). It is also one of two categories (the other being meat) that virtually all supermarkets provide under their own brands.…”

Section: Specialist Channels (Farmers' Markets Farm Shops)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Barriers to network innovation in UK ethnic fresh produce supply

Hingley

Lindgreen

Beverland

2010

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development

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This article investigates whether sectoral entrepreneurship by ethnic minorities is held back by network disconnection. Popular interest in localized production and consumption often gets offered up as an antidote to rapidly globalizing markets. However, fractures between local production and consumption prevent such markets from developing. This study investigates supply chains and networks that attempt to meet market demand for "specialist" fresh produce, targeted at and run by ethnic minority-controlled foodservice businesses in the U.K. The focus for attention is the West Midlands region. This region has a strong and entrepreneurial ethnic minority, predominant foodservice and wholesale sector and a strong agricultural/horticultural tradition, but the two are disconnected. Key findings indicate that latent demand exists for locally sourced specialist fresh produce to meet the needs of a growing ethnic minority population, but network integration is a barrier. Disconnection concerns the following: (a) there are predominant issues of price sensitivity, which dictate channel sourcing and market development, (b) foodservice businesses rely on the access, market information, and availability provided by gatekeeper wholesale traders who are bound to overseas agencies and their produce and display an ingrained resistance to local and regional supply, and (c) cultural disconnections separate rural (predominantly "white") growers and (predominantly Asian) wholesale intermediaries and retail/ foodservice businesses. 2This article identifies that ethnic entrepreneurship in specific sectors (such as specialist fresh produce) can be strong, but that there still are barriers to successful whole industry, regional, and network development. Poor motivation of both network 'gatekeeper' wholesalers and (and network collaboration) of growers is preventing ethnic entrepreneurs at the foodservice and retail level from benefitting from wider regional network source innovation.. Recommendations are made for production, technical, and marketing support at the grower and intermediary level; and all stakeholders need educational and market support in the development of truly integrated food networks.

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“…Retail growth strategies based on location and size (product range and price competitiveness) have been replaced by strategies based on differentiation such as own label fresh produce and meat (Fearne & Hughes, 1999). Buyer-driven chains link large retailers and branded marketers to decentralized networks of producers of low-cost developing countries (Gibbon, 2003).…”

Section: 33: Consolidation and Vertical And Horizontal Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dissembeded information used for food safety (Low & Vogel, 2009) product oriented (Feenstra et al, 2003;Ibery & Maye, 2005) Retail influenced (Fearne & Hughes, 1999) Low tech, inefficient distribution systems Mechanized / industrialized (Gibbon, 2003) Products Quality, nature and embeddedness (Murdoch et al, 2000;) Dissembedded…”

Section: 21: Evolution Of Local and Regional Food Systems Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

Implications of Local and Regional Food Systems: Toward a New Food Economy in Portland, Oregon

Mertens¹

2000

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The local food movement in the Portland Metro Region of Oregon is as prevalent as anywhere in the Country. To a large degree this is driven by the Portland Metro area food culture and the diverse agricultural landscape present in the Willamette Valley and throughout the State. Portlanders demand local food and thus far the rural periphery has been able to provide it; driving a new food economy that has economic implications throughout the region. As this regional food economy emerges much attention has been focused on harnessing its power for economic development perpetuated by the belief that there exists an opportunity to foster a cluster of economic activity pertaining to the production, processing, distribution and sale of regional foods that might generate economic opportunities throughout the value chain.The research presented here constitutes an attempt to characterize the local and regional food system that currently exists in the Portland Metro Region and to bring to light the opportunities present at the regional scale that link the agricultural periphery to the urban core. I present two different definitions of local and regional food systems and show how these different conceptions have very different implications for economic development.Once defined, I test for differences between local and regional food systems and the export-oriented, agro-food sector by analyzing aspects of geographic space and processes of knowledge accumulation and innovation in the context of aspects of regional economic ii development such as agglomeration economies, knowledge spillovers, business life cycle and industrial location.My analysis showed that there are significant differences between local and regional food systems and the export-oriented agro-food industry specific to supply chains, actors and products of the different systems. Furthermore, through spatial analysis, I found that there are differences in terms of the spatial structure and distribution between producers who participate in the different systems. Local and regional producers tend to cluster closer together at smaller scales, are smaller in size and are found to be closer to the urban core. Through a qualitative inquiry I found that this clustering facilitates forces of agglomeration economies specific to food producers who participate in local and regional supply chains, particularly non-pecuniary effects of knowledge accumulation. This underlying structure has significant effects on economic outcomes and as such has implications in terms of regional economic development when local and regional food systems are considered in terms of the city-region.iii Acknowledgements

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Success factors in the fresh produce supply chain: insights from the UK

Cited by 176 publications

References 1 publication

Management accounting practices in the British food and drinks industry

Management accounting practices in the British food and drinks industry

Barriers to network innovation in UK ethnic fresh produce supply

Implications of Local and Regional Food Systems: Toward a New Food Economy in Portland, Oregon

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