CoC Through the Wholesale Chain

If a wholesaler is BRCGS S&D Accredited (AA, no less), and they are providing CoC information on their delivery notes, is it unreasonable for a customer to request the CoC one step backwards?

Here's the example:

Customer A requests CoC and CoA information with their delivery.

Wholesaler ensures that batch numbers of products picked, including BBE dates are located on the Delivery Note, recorded at picking stage. The wholesaler also pro-actively reviews a copy of the Delivery Note and forwards on any associated CoA's to the customer. The CoC is covered with a statement on the delivery note.

 

 

It is my understanding that this is suitable and adequate. The traceability system is tested and accredited during the BRCGS Audit, and to schedule inline with the standard, so traceability is confirmed as being possible.

The wholesaler buys in bulk, so CoC's will cover multiple products per delivery, and as the wholesaler sells by the box rather than the pallet, it is possible that a delivery into a customer will include batches that are across multiple intakes to the wholesaler - and therefore across multiple CoC's from the supplier.

Is it unreasonable for the customer to request the additional CoC's each time a delivery goes in, especially given that the wholesaler is BRCGS accredited?

If this is something that your customer is requesting then I think it largely comes down to a question of whether the customer spends enough with you to entertain the faff of their specific requirements.

It's really at the customer's discretion to determine what their requirements are, and they have no obligation to be "reasonable" about it- the UK industry pretty much universally requires info that vastly exceeds legal / BRC requirements, so that in itself isn't really a factor IMO.

Equally, as a supplier you're completely free to say "sorry, we can't be bothered to do that and we don't really mind if we lose your business".

I'm not 100% clear on exactly what it is that the customer wants in this case. Are they saying that they want a CoC/CoA for each batch delivered for each delivery, and that the CoC/CoA documents they want are the ones issues by the actual manufacturer rather than by you as the wholesaler?

If so, I'd say that this isn't all that unusual, irrespective of the supplier's certification status.