National President Stuart Reddish said: “The NFRN’s news team has campaigned long and hard for news retailers to be automatically compensated for late papers so we welcome this bold step by Smiths News. We are pleased that a key industry player has finally recognised that it can no longer do nothing when the service it is paid to give its retail customers fails.
“At the earliest opportunity we will be working closely with Smiths News to further enhance this scheme, given that the £5 payment will only come into effect when papers are two or more hours late reaching retailers’ shops and reruns and claims are excluded.”
Mr Reddish continued: “The NFRN will not give up campaigning for supply chain improvements and we hope that publishers will take heed of this new scheme and look again at their arrival times into wholesale depots.
“Finally, I will be urging both Menzies Distribution and News UK DTR to follow suit.”
