Supplier visits to stores

If you have BAU visitors going to our stores, you are reminded to follow the below:

Visitors must present themselves to a member of staff, with their photo ID to show who they are representing and why.

Visitors must log in using the till screens as normal.

Visitors will not be allowed in store back areas (warehouses and offices) without supervision of a colleague. This policy applies without exception.

If Co-op colleagues are completing tasks, please be patient in requesting their time.

Any overnight work must be recorded in the store's calendar. Additionally, contractors must carry a signed letter of authority from Co-op to be permitted on-site.

Please do not sent unplanned visitors into our stores.

co-op connect back online

Co-op Connect is now back online with limited functionality.

While this is great news, please note that some internal systems are still being restored, and certain features may remain limited for the time being.

Please refrain from making any changes in Co-op Connect until further notice.

forecasts

Forecasts are now visible in Co-op Connect and provide an accurate, overall picture of our medium to long-term demand.

In the short term, daily volumes may fluctuate to support efficient operational recovery at depots and stores.

This variability is expected to continue until full system recovery is achieved. We will provide an update as soon as possible.

ExPECTED PO ARRIVAL TIMES SAT/SUN 16-17 May

As we get back to operational efficiency we are more closely monitoring and reviewing PO's prior to publishing them to suppliers.

This additional monitoring process is resulting in slight delays:


·       Direct to Store Suppliers should have received their orders.

·      

Fresh Suppliers will receive orders at approximately 11:30am.

·      

Ambient & Frozen Suppliers will begin receiving orders from late morning and into the early afternoon.

As we recover over the next few days we will be closely monitoring and checking orders. Suppliers are advised to expect similar delays, as we will endeavour to get back to our usual timings as soon as possible.

We would like to thank all of our suppliers for your continued patience and support as we work to get back to BAU.

SAP ORDERS ARE UP AND RUNNING

We are pleased to inform you that systemic-based orders resumed for Ambient, Fresh, Chilled and Frozen products from Wednesday 14 May.

However, due to the recent system disruption, we are unable to provide accurate product forecasting until further notice.

We acknowledge that production forecasts have been impacted by the disruption and appreciate your support in making every effort to fulfil orders as requested.

We anticipate some volatility in order volumes over the next few days as our systems update and return to normal operational efficiency.

During this period, some suppliers may experience sporadic inclusion or exclusion of product lines in their orders, and in some cases, full orders. We will do our absolute best to minimise these disruptions and appreciate your patience as we work towards resuming full supply.

We aim to share these systemic orders with you through our standard EDI channel. Therefore, suppliers are advised to ensure their systems are connected and ready to receive orders from Co-op


To ensure the smooth receipt of ambient and frozen orders, these suppliers should follow standard Booking In procedures once they have received their orders and are clear on when these can be delivered. Those using the Primary Warehousing operations are requested to contact their relevant site/operation if they need to deliver in stock, so we are able to control the intake of goods.

PRODUCT DEROGATIONS


Please do not deliver unplanned stock or additional volume to our depots without prior agreement.

If you have short-shelf-life stock produced for Co-op which has not been ordered, please speak to your Demand Planner to agree a pragmatic way forwards. We remain committed to taking Co-op branded finished products that have been produced to forecast.


Currently the usual ambient derogation process is offline so we are asking suppliers to highlight products which may require derogation directly to the Demand Planner. As this process is manual, and our current order patterns are volatile we would ask suppliers to make us aware of any issues at the earliest opportunity.

Please do not deliver products to our depots without our prior agreement, as it's highly likely this will be rejected. Any stock sent must be in line with the volumes we have agreed. 

Derogation Request Form

Shelf Life Derogation Process - Ambient and Frozen

Shelf Life Derogation Process - Fresh

Please find below a link to our temporary ambient derogation form, while Co-op connect is offline.

https://supplier.coop.co.uk/temporary-derogation-ambient

If you need further support

If the disruption at our other depots has significantly impacted your business, please contact the relevant buyer to discuss any issues. We are committed to working collaboratively with all our suppliers to minimise the impact on your business.

For a confidential chat about any aspect of your business you can contact our Code compliance officer, Saleem Chowdhery at [email protected] in complete confidence.

 

INVOICING TRANSITION


As we transition back to placing orders via SAP, our updated invoicing guidance is:

Standard Invoices

For all new SAP orders from Wednesday May 14, where you have a SAP purchase order (PO) number, please invoice via EDI or SNC as you would ordinarily do, quoting the PO number the order was fulfilled with.

For all manual orders already placed which are in the process of being produced or delivered, please continue to use the non-PO invoice process below.

Invoices for orders dated the week commencing Monday 28 April or earlier can now be submitted via EDI or SNC. However, if you have already submitted these invoices through the non-PO process, please do not resubmit them.

If you attempted to send EDI invoices between Friday 3 May and Monday 12 May, it’s likely they were not received. Please reprocess these invoices via EDI using the same invoice reference number as the original submission.

FRTS Direct Invoices

For any FRTS direct invoices that were held or sent from Friday 3 May onwards, you can now submit them via EDI. If you attempted to send EDI invoices for FRTS directs between Friday 3 May and Monday 12 May, it’s likely they were not received. Please resubmit these invoices via EDI using the same invoice reference number as the original.

Please send ASN's as usual through EDI.

INTERIM MANUAL INVOICING PROCESS

For manual PO's raised between Saturday 3 May and Monday 12 May, please use our non-PO invoicing process for invoicing.

Note: for suppliers that always use the manual PO process, continue to use this process for all of your invoices.

To do this, you need to complete an Excel based template with one row for each depot delivery invoice, at a total delivery level, along with PDF back-ups, which itemises each invoice.

Please refer to the template, example and user documents below, to guide you through this process.

Co-op Invoice File guide

Depot ANA Codes

Non PO Invoice File Example

Non PO Invoice Template

For any queries relating to the manual invoicing process, please email [email protected] with a subject line: Non PO Invoice Template – Queries.

PAYMENT QUERIES


We remain committed to paying all suppliers on time and in full.

For any urgent payment requests contact [email protected] with subject heading “URGENT PAYMENT REQUEST”.

For payment queries relating to SAP PO's raised before Friday 2 May, please raise them using the normal method on the ISM (Heat) portal through MyApps.

For payment queries relating to Manual PO's raised between Friday 2 May and Monday 12 May, please contact [email protected] with a subject line: Non PO Invoice Template – Queries.

INTERIM WAYS OF WORKING FAQs

Why have I not received any PO's from Co-op?

We are now generating orders through SAP again and you should have started to receive PO's again from Tuesday 13 May. If you have not received orders as expected, please speak to your Demand Planner.

I have short-dated stock produced for Co-op, what shall I do?

If you have short-shelf-life stock produced for Co-op which has not been ordered, please speak to your buyer to agree a pragmatic way forwards. We remain committed to taking Co-op branded finished products that have been produced to forecast.

Is Co-op Connect working?

Co-op Connect is online, however, it is not currently flowing information through to SAP. Therefore, changes that have been keyed into Co-op connect since Friday 2 May will not have been processed. This includes new product listings, promotions and cost price changes, as well as any article level amendments that have been keyed. We will communicate with all suppliers to inform you when this is back up and running.

Please do not key any new Change Requests (CR's) into Co-op Connect until further notice.

I have invoices to send for orders generated before Friday 2 May - how can I send them without EDI?


For SAP PO's raised before Friday 2 May, please use Coop’s SNC portal to send invoices, ASN's and credit notes.

We cannot currently add any new users to SNC. Every supplier has at least one user ID for SNC, which is usually your EDI contact.

SNC User Guide

SNC Access Request Form

Where can I find the correct contact details for my Co-op team?


Your Co-op Contacts are always available on this link, which is updated every 4 weeks: https://supplier.coop.co.uk/contact-matrix

For details of Supply Chain contacts over the weekend please visit:


https://supplier.coop.co.uk/supplychain-cover

There's someone in my organisation who isn't receiving updates from Co-op, how do I add them?


Please add all relevant contacts to our distribution list using this form: Update your contact details