You didn't actually have a fixed contract with a fixed price... but you weren't allowed to supply anyone else

Helen Bailey

The Baileys grew traditional round lettuces on the Norfolk coast in the early 1980s. The business was so successful that Gordon Bailey had featured on TV and won numerous prizes.

'Deal, but no contract'

As supermarkets began to take over from traditional local butchers and grocers, most farmers realised they had to supply supermarkets or lose their businesses.

The Baileys were no different and set about securing a deal to supply lettuces to Sainsbury's. However, although the Baileys had a deal with the supermarket, they didn't have a contract.

Instead they were what Sainsbury's called a "product programme" which the Baileys understood to mean they had to supply Sainsbury's exclusively.

Helen recalls: "You didn't actually have a fixed contract with a fixed price... it was always a programme and they would say we will need X amount at this month. But that would fluctuate.

They [supermarkets] are the ones that rule, and if you want to supply them, you live by their rules

Helen Bailey

"You weren't allowed to supply anybody else. If Tesco or another supermarket had approached us, then that would have been the end of us with Sainsbury's. You know... you couldn't.. they wouldn't entertain that at all."

Sainsbury's 'pulled the plug'

But as tastes changed, as the consumer's desire for gourmet novelty engulfed us all, Gordon and Helen paid a terrible price.

To keep up with Sainsbury's changing quality standards they had to install expensive new equipment or face having the supply programme terminated.

They invested everything to meet the exacting criteria but then demand for traditional lettuces nose-dived.

Supermarket customers wanted iceberg lettuces. Round lettuces became un-saleable. With no guaranteed contract Sainsbury's backed off.

Helen says: "They pulled the plug... and just left us to deal with the produce as best we could."

Bailiffs 'sold wedding presents'

The consequences were devastating. Without the Sainsbury's programme, the Baileys went bankrupt in 1985.

The receivers moved in. Even their wedding presents were sold off.

With two young children to support, Gordon found it difficult to cope. Thirteen years later, on 11 May 1998, Gordon Bailey killed himself

Helen believes he never recovered from the bankruptcy: "That was a period when I thought about how they could do such a thing and how could this happen, how could they treat people like that?

"They're the ones that rule, and if you want to supply them, you live by their rules. But unfortunately they're one-sided rules, they're not general rules."

Sainsbury's was the first supermarket to implement a supplier code of practice. But it told the producers of Food Junkies that it didn't have a record of the Baileys though it always works closely with suppliers and has worked with some for over a hundred years.

Helen Bailey still lives in Norfolk but no longer has anything to do with farming.