British Retail Consortium (BRC) Standard: a New Challenge for Firms Involved in the Food Chain. Analysis of Economic and Managerial Aspects

The spread of retailer brands and the progressive shift towards non-price competition policies are strictly correlated to the transformation of the distribution sector as a whole. The modern distribution company offers – by means of the private label products that at least match the quality level expected by the consumer but, in order to do this, it must effectively be able to guarantee the promised level of quality by establishing a meticulous and strict supplier control system. The paper evaluates the new strategies adopted by the retailers in order to improve non price competition and studies the economic and managerial consequences met by a processing firm that adopted the BRC food technical standard in order to meet with the retailer requirements. The case study shows that the adoption of the BRC food technical standard has had positive repercussions on both the management costs of company processes and the quality of customer relations in the modern distribution market. On a large scale, the paper identifies two main consequences in the case of a more widespread adoption of the BRC food technical standard by the suppliers in the next future: the first relates to the organisational relations among the operators in the supply chain and the second the relation between the retailer and the consumer.