Based in Holt, Yetman’s Brewery supplies its range of hand-made beers to a variety of outlets in the area, including local Waitrose stores. As a small business, the implications of these regulations were significant as they would have required investment in both time and money in order to ensure the company was able to adhere to the new requirements.
However, using the S4RB supplierENGAGE solution, Waitrose was able to communicate the details of FIR (Food Information Regulations) to its supplier base and provide a dedicated website that guided them through the actions they needed to take to become FIR compliant. In this way, Yetman’s was able to make the necessary changes to its beer labels without incurring major additional costs.
“Waitrose was incredibly supportive,” said owner Peter Yetman. “The information contained on the Engage website was amazing, and provided all the necessary answers. It meant that I was well prepared and ahead of the game”.
The engagement campaign delivered by S4RB helped suppliers understand the regulations, which products were affected, and gave clear guidance on the actions needed to ensure compliance with the regulations.
“By comparison, another retail customer merely sent a letter a few weeks before the FIR deadline asking me to confirm that I was compliant,” said Yetman.
The S4RB Engage software created a Waitrose-branded email that was sent to suppliers to highlight and explain the impending FIR and provide a link to the special website. “The web portal and all communications were Waitrose-branded, so we didn’t even know S4RB was involved until after the project was successfully completed”, explains Yetman.
One of the key features of the site was to help suppliers ascertain whether they were affected by the regulations or whether their labels were already compliant. This was particularly important for the beverage sector since it is not always included in food-related regulations. The website helped to stress that on this occasion beverage manufacturers were bound by the new regulations.
“As a small operation, regulatory compliance can be a challenge,” added Yetman. “Obviously you have to meet the requirements in order to continue trading, but the time and costs involved can almost be prohibitive.
“The approach Waitrose took was therefore extremely refreshing and provided a real boost to our business.”
“We take great pride in the way in which we work with our local and regional suppliers, and the Waitrose Local and Regional team take its responsibilities very seriously,” confirms John Clague, Technical Manager Compliance at Waitrose.
“Given the complexity of the FIR regulations we felt it was important to help suppliers understand their impact and the ENGAGE web portal from S4RB enabled us to support them through this process.”
