Tracing the Order Lead-Time of Grocery Retailers in the UK and Greek Markets.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a comparative study of order lead times for firms operating in the UK and Greek food retail markets with the UK one being regarded at the forefront in terms of logistics efficiency.

Design/methodology/approach – The main research instrument is a survey of managers employed by the major food multiple retailers operating in the UK and Greece. Statistical analysis is employed to illustrate the variances and differences between these retailers.

Findings – The study illustrates that total lead-time is longer than the sum of the components. This implies that there are non-value-added time delays that are occurring between the components and there is still room for improvement. It is also shown that any differences in lead-time between Greek and UK grocery retailers have been effectively eliminated as the entrance of retail multinationals in Greece has forced domestic retailers to improve their logistics systems.

Originality/value – There is a scarcity of papers in the logistics field that cross-examines the logistics performance of national grocery supply chains. This is addressed via the current paper that reports the results of a comparative study of order lead times for firms operating in two European food retail markets, the UK and Greece. The paper will be beneficial to the strategic thinking of retail logistics managers and will support further empirical research work in that academic field of study.