Talking Tesco: UK Competition Commission

Why are we publishing these comments?

Tesco has been reading with interest the third party comments on the Groceries Market Investigation that the Competition Commission has been publishing on its website. Our formal submissions have addressed many of the issues raised by these comments, particularly those of some of the professional lobbying organisations. However, a number of submissions on the Competition Commission's website contain more specific comments about Tesco which we have not covered in our formal submissions.

Some of these specific comments are inaccurate and misleading, and we are providing a series of short notes in order to put the record straight. In the interests of transparency we are today publishing the first such series of notes.

Forum Of Private Business

The Forum of Private Business suggest that in November 2004 we were advertising steep price reductions on large packs of beer when we had actually raised prices a few weeks earlier in order to advertise the price cut. They use a specific example of 24-packs of Carlsberg Export.

We aim to give our customers great prices and great value all year round. We do not artificially hike prices in order to then cut them. We have reviewed our records of product selling prices for this time period and can assure customers and the Forum of Private Business that this promotion was advertised in line with the guidance published in the Department for Trade and Industry’s Code of Practice for Traders on Price Indications, whereby the product had been sold for more than 28 days at the higher price in the preceding six months. This included the period of five weeks immediately before the promotion when we retailed the 24-pack of Carlsberg Export 330ml cans for £24.99 nationally (£25.99 in our Express outlets). When the products were sold at the lower price it was as part of a time-limited promotion.