Performance in food retailing: A cross-national consideration and comparison of retail margins

The leading United Kingdom food retailers have recently come under considerable scrutiny in respect of their reported profits, margins and accounting policies. Journalists and analysts as well as academics have focused on comparisons with continental European retailers. This paper argues that a number of factors are pertinent to the debate on performance in food retailing. The classification introduced (accountancy practices, cost structures, management structures and control and the environmental context), is illustrated using UK and French company data. The conclusion is drawn that it is not just simple differences but also the operational dimensions of company practices relating to these factors which are important determinants of performance. Simplistic headline comparisons are too inaccurate to be meaningful.