EXCLUSIVE: Nisa makes rebates harder to achieve for retailers

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Nisa is to make it harder for retailers to qualify for rebates through raising the weekly spending thresholds required to achieve payouts.

A message from Nisa to partnered stores, seen by Better Retailing, shows that from 1 October retailers must spend an extra £1,000 per week to qualify for the lowest rebate tier.

To achieve a 1% rebate the average weekly spend requirement has increased from £4,000 to £5,000. For a 2% rebate, the threshold has increased from £6,500 to £7,500. For a 3% rebate the threshold has risen from £9,000 to £10,000. For a 4% rebate, the threshold has risen from £12,000 to £12,500.

Nisa stores can still earn an extra 0.5% rebate by stocking a credible range of Co-op own-label.

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The changes further widen the gap with Booker’s Spend and Save rebate tiers. At every level, Nisa retailers now need to spend £1,250 per week more than Booker supplied retailers to achieve the same basic rebate tier.

Asked about the changes, a Nisa spokesperson told Better Retailing: “The Fresh Rewards rebate banding tiers have remained unchanged since they launched, whilst others within the industry decided to align their tiering systems against inflation last year. Following valuable retailer feedback, an ongoing trial is currently shaping a further update to the Fresh Rewards scheme which will be communicated to customers in due course.”

The spokesperson said Nisa’s rebate bandings ‘remain competetive against other symbol groups’ and that the changes are the first step towards “a revised rebate scheme which is currently being trialled with several Nisa retailers.” Nisa added that it had invested in lowering the wholesale prices of ‘thousands of product lines’ this year and that feedback from retailers had been ‘positive.’

A Nisa representative previously said further changes to rebates had been push backed until 2024 in order to ‘fix [their] pricing strategy’. Already in 2023, Nisa amended the Fresh Rewards rebate scheme to allow the portion of rebate previously only spendable on store developments to be paid out in cash. It is also expected that Nisa’s current requirement that stores stock a ‘credible’ range of Co-op own label to receive the maximum rebate payments will soon be scrapped.

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