Suppliers to supermarket chain Morrisons have been left counting the cost after a glitch with a new computer system meant that many went unpaid.
The company said that the cause of the glitch had now been identified. It is currently running a new payments batch and added that out-of-pocket suppliers would be paid within days.
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One supplier told industry website Foodmanufacture.co.uk that they ought to have received payment within 30 days, but had now been waiting 45 days, affecting their business's cash flow. It comes months after the supermarket chain demanded big discounts from suppliers in return for a greater volume of sales that, many say, never materialised.
The glitch is the latest in a rising tide of discontent among Morrisons's suppliers, which mirrors broader trading problems that the company has been facing. Suppliers told Foodmanufacture.co.uk that the company is the "most unreliable" of the big four supermarket chains to deal with, and that it has lost the good reputation it built up when it was run by Ken Morrison, whose family retain a 15.5 per cent stake in the business.
The supermarket chain was founded by Ken Morrison's father in 1899, with Ken Morrison taking over the running of the business in 1952.
