
My role as the UK’s small business commissioner
Holland & Barrett: They deserved to be shamed for their actions
This week I used the powers available to me to ‘name and shame’ high street giant, Holland & Barrett after they paid their small supplier 37 days outside of its contractual agreement of 30 days, for a £15,000 invoice. Holland & Barrett like to portray themselves to consumers as an ethical business. I would expect a company which valued its ethical products to maintain standards across its relations with both its consumers and the business’ supply chain.Since the publication of my report, Holland & Barrett have agreed to work with me to improve their payment practices, particularly for small suppliers.This is a positive step which has the potential to help a lot of Holland & Barrett suppliers. I intend to publish an update to my findings by the end of the year and would welcome any evidence from existing or prospective suppliers on Holland & Barrett’s payment practices.
Amplifying the late payments conversation for SMEs
I hope that by publicly revealing the persistent poor payment behaviour of big businesses we will start to tackle the imbalance of power and bring about the cultural change that is desperately needed. I not only want to highlight bad practice but also showcase ethical payment. This is a watershed moment and I hope that small businesses will feel more confident in coming forward and opening up about the poor payment practices they face.Share this story