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Article: We can make it work: Budgens and the Ilchester Cheese Company have shown that buyers and suppliers do not have to be constantly at each other's throats.(Buyer/supplier relationships)
- Article from:
- Grocer
- Article date:
- April 17, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 William Reed Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Ask suppliers what they really think of buyers and you can usually expect an expletive-ridden response. Not from blended cheese supplier The Ilchester Cheese Company, though. "Budgens' business changed our business," says national account manager Rodger Seaman simply of one of its oldest customers.
It is not difficult to see why he feels warm towards the retailer From a business that was turning over 20,000 [pounds sterling] to 30,000 [pounds sterling] a year five years ago with Budgens, The Ilchester Cheese Company now turns over six times that. Seaman puts much of the dramatic improvement down to its strong relationship with the retailer.
In the first ...