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.

Consumer No. 3 – John Carmichael

Mr Carmichael (Consumer No.3) expressed concerns about his local Tesco Metro which he believes was converted from a One-Stop store before obtaining planning permission. He also expressed concerns about noise from the refrigeration plant (which he accepted we have dealt with) and delivery vehicles.

We would be very happy to look into Mr Carmichael’s concerns if we could see further details which would allow us to identify the store to which he refers. We have not converted any One Stop stores to our Metro format, so it is possible that he is referring to one of our Express stores.

The conversion of our One Stop stores to Tesco Express has been very popular with customers. Customers benefit from the broader ranges, including many more fresh produce lines, at the low prices that are available in our Express stores. We are also committed to being a good neighbour and as part of our Community Plan we are cutting the number of deliveries made to these stores so that there are fewer lorries on the roads. We have already reduced the number of deliveries to Express stores, saving over 54,000 deliveries each year, travelling 2.5 million fewer miles. We are changing delivery times to reduce local traffic congestion. We are also evaluating noise around Express stores and testing innovative solutions for quieter deliveries. We have invested in the latest refrigeration technology to ensure that our refrigeration plants are as quiet as possible. We are pleased that Mr Carmichael now believes that the noise issue has been dealt with.