For many retailers, therefore, whilst price may well be very important, there could well be other aspects of the business relationship that need to be in place. Some of these relationships or partnerships are of long standing and have involved extensive product development and consequent growth of both partners. Thus, in food retailing, some retail brand manufacturing companies such as Northern Foods have become highly significant and large businesses in their own right, primarily through this collaborative arrangement for retailer brand production over a long time period. Inevitably such a relationship asks questions of existing practices in supply chains, particularly when the point of production could be anywhere in the world.