Supply Chain Management in the Prime Lamb Industry Tender Plus: A Success Story

Traditionally fresh food industries have lagged behind other consumer goods in their approach to marketing and integration, and generally, are resigned to being commodity traders. Retailers' worldwide have increased their dominance within the fresh food industry. Clairs (2001) argued that within 10 years, 5-10 retail chains would dominate global food retailing. In Australia the three big supermarket chains and their subsidiaries had 40% of the retail grocery market in 1970 yet by 1998-99 their share had moved to 80% (AFFA and ABARE 2000). In the UK, four retailers account for two thirds of all grocery sales (Fearne & Hughes 1999). The Australian prime lamb industry is rapidly growing, especially in the export arena and has companies rising to the challenge of the domination of market place by retail chains. This paper looks in depth at one such company, Tender Plus. It profiles the relationships within the supply chain, and the success factors, which has provided Tender Plus with the impetus to increase sales to Japan by 15% a year. The key factor is a paradigm shift from a price orientated domain, to that of a relationship orientated one. This is achieved through the commercial factors of quality and consistency of supply, and the people factors of trust, honesty, loyalty and open communication. A combination of these factors, and continuous learning, is cementing the future of Tender Plus, in a marketplace where the power of multi-national conglomerates is increasing.