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Morning Line: Tesco's ambitions laid bare

Is there any corner of the market that Tesco isn’t seeking to conquer? And does it matter?

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by Chris Marshall on Nov 20, 2009 at 10:40

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Is there any corner of the market that Tesco isn’t seeking to conquer? And does it matter?

It has been increasingly expanding away from just food sales, but yesterday the world’s third largest retailer, went a step further by saying it wants to more than double the profit it generates from non-grocery businesses.

First off there is the group’s plans to take on the high street banks. Tesco has been repeatedly named as a potential buyer of Northern Rock; this speculation was stoked further recently with its plans to create 1,000 bank jobs in Newcastle. The government, desperate to be seen to create competition in the banking market, is fully behind Tesco Bank’s ambitions.

With banking and food nailed, Tesco is now looking to overpower the telecoms market.

Yesterday the group announced a deal with Cable&Wireless which will help it become a leading provider of consumer broadband and phone services. This will apparently involve hundreds of new in-store telecoms outlets and discounted packages of internet and landline services, making it a serious competitor with high street phone chains.

There is no let-up in Tesco’s aggressive expansion plans, which look like an effort at no less than world domination. The telecoms move comes on top of the news just days ago that Tesco is opening three huge shopping centres in China. It already serves four million customers a week in the country, operating in 28 cities.

The traditional backlash has come from corner shops and grocers that are being priced out by this Tescopoly, as well as the farmers who are squeezed to allow the sale of £2 chickens and the like. But soon all of the other industries that will lose out to Tesco’s pricing power will bemoan its dominance.

Tesco’s increasingly diverse ambitions do mean more competition will be brought to industries such as telecoms (not to mention books, CD sales and so on), but long-term Tesco is likely to drive others out of the market as its hyper-Darwinian nature takes its toll on rival businesses.

Cue a further dilution of our high streets. but is there anything, at all, that we can do? Well for a start we could take heed of the following demands from the ‘Tescopoly Alliance’:

A block on any new take-overs by Tesco or other major supermarkets;
Stronger planning policies to protect local shops and high streets;
A legally binding supermarket code of practice to ensure that all farmers, at home and overseas, are treated fairly;
An independent watchdog with teeth to protect the interests of consumers, farmers and small retailers; and
Rules to protect workers' rights at home and overseas.

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9 comments so far. Why not have your say?

Tesco Employ 200.000 people.Mostly part time.

They don't support british jobs,what with all their imports

They don't support British farming.

Did you know the large farms employ foriegin workers over British workers so they can make money on accommodation.Helps them to give produce away so that tesco can destroy the real british economy.

over 65% of the workforce work in the private sector and its getting smashed

Does it matter??

As long as this government can afford to keep us on benifits with their QE and rape of the taxpayer,I suppose not.

I don't mind being made poor and forced to spend my tax credits in the Superstores. Only thing that annoys me though is the scummers have been reducing the the amount of food you are getting in the same packs and charging more for it.Perhaps they do care for the farmers after all.

As for them taking over telecoms!! I have no problem there,quite like talking to Indians anyway.

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Tesco is clearly contemplating its food sales future in the face of a potential Super Market Ombudsman. Why, is Lord Mandleson not acting, why are we STILL waiting? What is behind the delay? Does he still believe, like the rest of his urban labour peers that the UK can continue to import its food at the expense of the food supplies of other countries?

What is more important, our ability to grow food or high share prices? Tesco provides the latter by damaging the former.

With Global food shortages Tesco's business practise has become a political issue which must no longer be ignored.

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If you look at most High Streets in traditional British towns they were originally residential. Retailers vandalised the architectural integrity of many of the buildings by bashing out the ground floors and putting in plate glass windows and covering the fronts with ever more intrusive logos and signs.

Personally the sooner High Streets revert to residential use, and the buildings are restored to what the original builders intended, the happier I will be.

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So were you refering to New or Old bond street?

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"Was"

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If you don't like Tesco you don't have to shop there

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So you thought swine flu was dangerous? Beware! At this moment in time there is no cure for the Tesco virus and at the rate it is spreading, the whole country will eventually pay for this terrible illness.

Big brother?? Big Tesco!!

Cheap? No! We will all pay later if they are not stopped soon with there ever growing plan of domination.

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What rubbish!

I am so fed up with the envy brigade and their pathetic dislike of a major British success story!

Do they not realise that the key to global success is to conquer the home market first?

Do they not realise that the management of Tesco do not subscribe to the incompetency of British government?

Do they not realise that the only chance of employment for the growing numbers of youngsters,intelligent and otherwise,is to encourage success?

Watch out Marks@Spencers,the envy mob will be picking on you next.They will be starting a petition soon to bring back Woolworths so that they can feel comfortable with mediocrity and failure.

Bugger swine flu,I want to be immunised from that lot!It's been a virulent disease in the UK since the 2nd World War.

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Stephen Porter

Nov 21, 2009 at 17:03

Poor blind Mike, swaming into the abyss along with all the other lemmings

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