MAXIMA withdraws from code of business practice in Lithuania

Planet Retail 7 November 2007

According to reports in the Baltic press, Maxima has decided to withdraw from the code of good business practice for retail chains. The code was signed in March this year with the aim of ensuring that retailers offered fair prices and had no chance to use the forthcoming introduction of the euro as an excuse to raise prices. The code also made it more difficult for retailers to negotiate prices and allows suppliers to boost prices in summer and autumn according to Maxima chief executive, Gintaras Marcinkevicius, "In our opinion, the essential reason behind the rise in prices of those goods is the artificial decline of competition." A ban on all retail chains to purchase goods at lower prices had an inevitable effect on the rise of consumer prices and the leap in inflation in Lithuania, Marcinkevicius noted. Having withdrawn from the code, Maxima is reportedly aiming to invite suppliers to renegotiate the prices as the retailer will seek to reduce the prices of goods.

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