Abstract
The population for this survey consisted of all Irish-based food & drink suppliers, who directly supplied to one of the five major retailers in the Republic of Ireland. Of the 350 or so companies which qualified for this survey, almost 1/3 responded to the mailed questionnaire; a further breakdown of respondent companies is presented below in terms of product category, firm size and individual respondent title. Those who supply to more than one major retailer are far more likely to use IOS than a supplier supplying only one retailer'.
As we can see form Fig.4, almost 3/4th of the respondents are either using or are in the process of implementing IOS with retailers, leaving just over 1/4th of respondents not trading with retailers via IOS. The vast majority of those not using IOS are suppliers supplying to only one major retailer, with 58% of respondents who supply to just one retailer not using IOS (this accounts for the majority of the 1/4th mentioned above). Those who supply to more than one retailer are greater users of IOS, with 87% of such suppliers either using or in the process of implementing IOS with retailers. (Figs. 7A & 7B)
