A commentary on the United Kingdom's leading food retailers' resilience plans in the face of climate change

In September 2019, the UK House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee warned that the UK’s food supply was vulnerable to climate change. Within the UK food retailing is highly concentrated with the four leading food retailers accounting for almost 70% of all food sales. In the face of the threat of climate change to food supplies, a focus on resilience might be seen to have much to offer retailers. However, little work has been published in the academic literature on if, and how, retailers are employing the concept of resilience in their business plans. With these thoughts in mind, this commentary paper provides an exploratory review of how, the UK’s four leading food retailers, namely Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons, have publicly acknowledged the importance of resilience in the face of climate change. The paper outlines definitions of resilience and retail resilience, draws out four general themes within the UK food retailers’ resilience plans and offers some wider reflections on the retailers’ resilience plans in the face of climate change