Below-cost selling not "immoral", says former Asda chief
Business leader and former Asda chief Archie Norman has argued that below-cost selling of alcohol is not "immoral" - but supermarkets should agree to end "irresponsible" promotions.
Speaking at The Publican's Pub Trade Summit in London today, the former Tory MP said selling alcohol in order to encourage consumption was "a pretty silly thing to do".
But asked whether he believed low prices in supermarkets contributed to irresponsible drinking, he replied: "I don't think it's self evident".
However, during the interview with BBC Working Lunch's Adam Shaw in front of a packed room of delegates, Norman warned against allowing the government to intervene on price.
"If you go down that route you invite politicians into the pricing arena that you will never get out of," he said.
Issues such as binge-drinking "lie far deeper than what happens in distribution", he said, and pointed to the importance of "personal responsibility".
On the issue of the current tough times ahead, he said: "Recession needn't be a miserable time."
Norman, who revived Asda's fortunes as its chief executive between 1991 and 1996, added: "The fun is in leading your people through a tough time successfully. It's knocking the competition off the table and coming out of it all the stronger."
He also advised delegates to be "realistic", adding: People will follow you anywhere if you can show them there is a way out of it."
Win the public argument
Asked how the pub trade could better represent itself to government and gain political influence, Norman urged the industry to "win the public argument".
"Politicians only ride on popular opinion and so it's not a question so much of lobbying parliament - you have to bring popular opinion with you and work the media," he said.
Later Jeremy Blood, managing director of Scottish and Newcastle, warned that the issue of binge-drinking was not a "Daily Mail trumped-up issue" and the industry must deal with the problem.
He pointed to the recently unveiled cross-industry marketing initiative Project 10, designed to address the issues around binge-drinking.
John Moulton, managing partner of private equity firm Alchemy, painted a grim picture of the current financial state of the trade, claiming there was more than £20bn of debt in the industry.
However he gave a host of advice on ways to fight the downturn including maximising the use of facilities such as function rooms and gardens, forecasting the future, and focussing carefully on how staff are utilised.
