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.

Jennings Meats

Jennings Meats suggest that, following the conversion of our store in Richmond to the Express format, it is no longer possible to buy any natural meat, fish or poultry portions. Jennings Meats suggest that these lines have been replaced by processed foods.

Jennings Meats’ suggestion is not true. Since the conversion of Richmond One Stop to a Tesco Express in June 2004, we have almost doubled the amount of space available for chilled and fresh food. There are currently 23 lines of natural fresh meat and fish available, not including sausages and bacon etc. We also stock 32 lines of cooked meats, including a range of continental meats. It is true that we replaced chest freezers with wall mounted freezers and reduced the number of frozen meat lines. This is because our customers have told us they prefer to buy fresh meat rather than frozen. They also wanted a better range of convenience foods, so we have increased the number of these lines. Our customers clearly prefer the new range available in Richmond Express and this is demonstrated by the fact that our sales have more than doubled following the conversion.

Jennings Meats claim that following our acquisition of T&S Stores their supplies were cancelled, causing a serious reduction in their turnover.

The decision to use alternative suppliers for chilled and fresh meats and for frozen products appears (from those records we have) to have been made in 2001, before Tesco acquired T&S stores.