The Hindu Business Line : Retailers to ensure suppliers use EAN barcodes from Sept

IN a first of its kind move, retail majors Foodworld Supermarkets, Giant Wholesale Club, Trinethra Super Retail, and Nilgiris Franchise Division today jointly announced their plan to standardise identification of FMCG products in India, by mandating all suppliers to use the universal EAN barcodes on all product supplies from next month.

Moreover, retailers have decided to charge a penalty from those suppliers who do not conform to the requirement, according to a statement from EAN. EAN is a non-profit organisation set up by various industry bodies together with the Commerce Ministry for administering and promoting the use of global supply chain standards to the Indian industry.

"Organised retailing in India is still at a nascent stage when compared to developed countries in terms of adoption of international best practices and international standards in supply chains. One key area relates to use of internationally accepted EAN.UCC barcode standards for unique and universal identification of products and consignments in the supply chain," EAN India CEO, Mr Ravi Mathur, said.

"FoodWorld expects to save over Rs 40 lakh in just direct labelling costs by switching to scanning of EAN barcodes on all consumer products. Besides this, it will facilitate collaborate demand forecasting, consumption-based production scheduling and replenishment by our suppliers, thus benefiting all of us," said FoodWorld Supermarkets' Vice-President, Mr K. Radhakrishnan, said in the statement.

EAN barcodes will also facilitate tracking of goods across the supply chain, efficient management of returnables and avoiding unnecessary stock pileups in the supply chain pipeline.