Supermarkets aren’t to blame for suppliers’ woes – the smartest ones are thriving

Supermarket suppliers would have you believe the retailers are driving them out of business. But they've nobody to blame but themselves, says Bengt Saelensminde.

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Suppliers need to specialise to survive

This week, restructuring firm Begbies Traynor reported that it had seen a 54% leap in the number of supermarket suppliers in financial distress. The argument goes that the effects of the supermarket price wars are being shoved down the line. So it's the supermarket suppliers that suffer they take the hit as the supermarkets try to cut prices while maintaining their margins.

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Bengt graduated from Reading University in 1994 and followed up with a master's degree in business economics.

 

He started stock market investing at the age of 13, and this eventually led to a job in the City of London in 1995. He started on a bond desk at Cantor Fitzgerald and ended up running a desk at stockbroker's Cazenove.

 

Bengt left the City in 2000 to start up his own import and beauty products business which he still runs today.