Tesco has completed a £140m deal to buy the Tokyo based convenience chain C Two-Network. Currently C2 operates 78 stores of 1,000 to 10,000 sq ft. Tesco is planning to open 10 to 20 sites a year but, according to deputy chairman David Reid, is not considering developing a hypermarket expansion programme, "Tokyo is very densely populated and smaller formats work best"
Tesco has been researching the market for almost three years said Reid and there are about 1,000 potential locations where Tesco could add new sites. The challenges Western retailers faced, as recent market entrants Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Costco and Metro have discovered was dealing through wholesalers rather than directly with suppliers and adjusting to consumers shopping habits.
Tesco has announced that it will source and promote local milk in all its Cornish stores. The milk will be supplied to Tesco under the Cornish Dairy brand by Newlands Farm and will be processed and packaged in Cornwall. The news has been warmly received in the county.
Farmer Neil Badock said "This is not only good news for us, but the whole of Cornwall - it will give a real boost to the local economy."
The growth of the discount stores Aldi and Lidl in Ireland poses a threat to jobs in the major supermarkets, says the shopworkers union, Mandate. According to the union's national organiser, John Douglas, the drive to lower costs is reducing "solid jobs". The Irish retailer Superquinn and Tesco are both shedding over 200 staff through voluntary redundancy, as a result of staff regrading.
Douglas believed that such reorganisation is being carried out in order to compete with the discounters.
"There are 'extras' such as pension rights and overtime when working for Tesco, Dunnes and Superquinn. With the discounters it's just a rate of pay for the job and the staff turnover is so high pension rights don't come into it.
Friends of the Earth, the environmental protection group, has been gunning for UK market leader Tesco for some time, contributing among others to the debate on whether the company should be allowed to bid for rival Safeway. The latest broadside from FoE came last week, when the organisation published a report to coincide with the retailer's annual shareholder meeting and which it claimed showed that the company was failing to meet its social responsibilities.
Friends of the Earth's argument was supported by individual farmers and representatives from Bananalink, Corporate Watch, farm, Grassroots Action for Food and Farming, the Small and Family Farms Alliance, and the National Sheep Association in the UK, all of whom expressed their concerns about the way the supermarket giant behaves.
The FoE report includes personal responses from farmers, who claim that Tesco has boosted profits at the expense of farmers, and who argue that this has affected environmental and animal welfare standards.
