Trust in politicians and supermarkets is low

That's the view of Sainsbury boss Justin King who, speaking at the grocery think tank IGD convention in London last month, was scathing about Chancellor George Osborne's proposal that workers should exchange their employment rights for shares. What, he asked, would this do for people's trust in business, which was already at an all-time low?

King's comments were a prelude to his announcement that Sainsbury planned to drop its 'wheel of health' in favour of a tabular, combined multiple traffic lights and guideline daily amount front-of-pack (FoP) nutritional labelling scheme. And before his call for the industry to unite behind a universal FoP labelling scheme to regain the trust of consumers.

Whether such unity is possible in such a competitive environment remains to be seen. Retailers are usually more interested in fighting among themselves than winning the support of increasingly disloyal shoppers. With respondents to an IGD convention poll (cited by 37% of those present) saying their biggest headache was the slow pace of consumer spending, competition between the multiples is unlikely to diminish.

Sainsbury then announced its unilateral plans to ditch the Red Tractor labelling scheme, which it said consumers found confusing and failed to reflect the higher animal welfare standards it sought. It was a big blow for farmers who thought the scheme, while not meeting the highest welfare standards, was at least something that most of them could support.

This move is unlikely to raise trust between retailers and their food suppliers.