Role for Auditors Growing, FMI Study Says

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Food retailers and wholesalers should expect to boost the size of their audit departments in coming years to meet expanding roles of information technology, retail operations and supply chain, according to a new study by Food Marketing Institute.

FMI said results of its Food Retailing and Wholesaling Internal Audit Study published Monday at the 2013 Annual Internal Audit conference here, indicates 42% of companies expect to grow the size of the internal audit function over the next five years in order to maintain effectiveness and efficiency of operations, reliability of financial reporting, compliance with laws and regulation and safeguarding of assets.

The report, conducted by 210 Analytics, LLC, details the findings of a national survey of 31 supermarket retailing and wholesaling companies, representing 24,688 stores and 981 internal audit professionals.