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.

Federation Of Small Businesses (FSB)

The FSB claim that they are aware of a case where Tesco approached a supplier to manufacture goods at a price that would not be profitable for the supplier.

Our aim is to always provide the best products in our stores at the best possible prices. We are always looking for new suppliers to provide our customers with new and innovative products. Last year we introduced around 8000 new products. In the coming months we will also be working with many more regional supplies through our regional sourcing programme, which will see the introduction of regional buying offices across the UK.

As it is difficult for us to investigate such a claim without the full details, if the FSB would like us to look at this is more detail they should contact us directly. However, the FSB seem to suggest that this particular company is not an existing Tesco supplier. They are absolutely under no obligation to become a supplier to Tesco. There are many alternative routes to market, and many small suppliers do very well supplying other retailers of different sizes and types, selling their products online and taking advantage of growth areas in the sector such as farm shops and farmers markets.