Distributors up in arms against D-Mart

VADODARA: Over 300 distributors from the city have decided to not supply products to

hypermarket

chain

D-Mart

.


Members of the FMCG Distributor Association, Vadodara met on Friday to discuss the strategy and claimed that they have got support from the distributors in the other states too.

“All the products that reach the retail chains go through the distributors. But D-Mart is pressurizing the companies to supply them the products directly. They want to bypass the distributors,” said Bharat Desai, president of the association.

“Many distributors have spent money on creating infrastructure including buying vehicles and hiring men. If the companies directly supply products to the retail chains, how will we earn?” Desai said.

The association said that it hasn’t supplied products to D-Mart in the last three days. “We have contacted our counterparts across Gujarat too. From Saturday, they won’t supply any product to D-Mart stores across the state. Even Goa distributors will join in. We will continue with this till D-Mart doesn’t assure us that they will buy products through the distributors,” Desai added.

He said that the companies are selling products for lesser price to the big retail chains than the small traders. So the small traders aren’t able to give discounts to the customers like the big malls.