Retailer complaints about wholesalers soar

by Dia Stronach dia.stronach@newtrade.co.uk

Retailer complaints about news wholesaler conduct leapt last year, with delivery times the number-one frustration in stores, according to newly released official data.

Wholesalers Menzies Distribution, News UK and Smiths News collectively received nearly 20 complaints per day from stores in 2022, a quarter more than 2021, according to figures in the Press Distribution Review Panel’s (PDRP) annual report, released last week.

Despite Menzies and Smiths News each supplying the same number of stores, Menzies received more than double the number of complaints as Smiths News.

Menzies also took nearly twice as long to resolve issues reported by stores, with the average Menzies customer now facing an 18-day wait to have their complaint addressed.

News UK’s wholesale operation took the longest time to resolve the average complaint – 35 days, attributed to “online issues” at the company from October to December.

While complaints per month against Menzies reduced over the year, Smiths News finished 2022 with 55% more complaints per month than when it started the year.

Independent PDRP chairperson Steve Cripwell attributed the rise in complaints to a post-pandemic bounceback in supply pressures, a new customer care line at Smiths introduced in 2021 leading to easier store complaints and continued driver shortages.

The report said driver shortages were “greater and more prolonged” at Smiths News due to a “training lag for new recruits”.

The number of more serious ‘stage two’ (where a wholesaler fails to resolve a retailer issue) complaints and breaches each increased by more than 50%.

Cripwell said the rising complaints “highlights ongoing retailer frustration”.

Despite the trend, the wholesaler-supplied data suggested compliance with required delivery times into stores increased slightly from 91.1% to 91.6%.

Unlike in 2021, every month saw average RDTs of greater than 90%, except for September, where coverage of the Queen's death led to RDT compliance dropping to 86.7%.

Stores also reported fewer issues with customer service, voucher processing and order management than the year before, though complaints about delivery times, delivery quality, returns, invoicing and claims all increased year on year.

RN understands work is underway at each wholesaler to improve service standards into stores, including greater communication between depots and publishers to prioritise packing based on publisher inbounds.

The Fed is a member of the PDRP. The trade group’s national president, Jason Birks, welcomed the simpler and more transparent complaints procedure for stores introduced in 2021, but added there remained “a long way to go”.

He criticised the absence of information on “the root cause of most complaints” – publisher delays – stating: “This must be addressed if the drive to grow print subscriptions is to be maximised.”