Tesco.com - Competition Commission

Tesco Statement on Slough Provisional Findings

"Four years ago our customers in Slough told us that our store was dated and overcrowded. They asked us to build them a new store with better facilities and a wider range of products.

"We have delivered that store and in doing so have transformed shopping in the town making it better, cheaper more convenient and accessible to the whole community.

"This is the reality of shopping in Slough today where consumers are well served by Tesco and many other supermarkets.

"In order to deliver this we needed to acquire a temporary site to move our store to so that we could continue to serve customers and look after our staff. The Co-op store on Uxbridge Road was up for sale and was ideal for this purpose.

"We only ever intended to operate this store whilst redeveloping the existing Tesco store and have been working hard to sell it ever since its closure - keeping the authorities informed at every stage. We identified a number of potential buyers over the years - including our main rivals - but most were prevented from buying by the OFT on competition grounds.

"We want to continue with the redevelopment of the Uxbridge Road site in order to make shopping even better for local people and we will work with the Commission to do so in a way that they find acceptable and that will achieve our shared goal of selling the site as quickly as possible."

06/07/2007