Smiths News has been asked to attend an emergency meeting at NFRN’s London HQ, following ‘a serious deterioration of service levels’ in the area.

London district president Nilesh Patel told RN: “In the past week, we’ve had no supplements, missing papers, late deliveries and an overall serious deterioration of service levels.

“The company’s reliance on contract drivers is the issue. Often the contractors subcontract the work, so there’s little accountability and no motivation for the drivers to provide the same service. It also means that the depot becomes clogged with vans attempting to enter, exit and load up at the site because there’s little coordination.” 

Peter Williamson, NFRN head of news operations, said a pencilled-in meeting with the wholesaler was brought forward to deal with the issues.

Smiths’ Hemel Hempstead depot serves a large geographic area, following the closure of the company’s Borehamwood and Slough branches last year. It has since been plagued by instances of poor performance. This has led to management being brought in from elsewhere in the business and reductions in staff probation periods.

Williamson said: “We normally see a period of improvement after our meetings with Smiths, followed by a week of disaster, so we need to find a way to challenge the causes of the retail issues. This might be contract drivers.”

The meeting is to take place this week. Asked what he hopes will come from the meeting, Patel said: “It would improve things if, like Menzies, they became less reliant on subcontractors.”

Williamson urged retailers with news supply issues to call NFRN Connect on 0800 121 6376.