UK: Tesco OR Tescopoly

Tesco now controls 30% of the grocery market in the UK. In 2007, the supermarket chain announced over Â£2.5 billion in
profits. Growing evidence indicates that Tesco’s success is partly based on trading practices that are having serious
consequences for suppliers, farmers and workers worldwide, local shops and the environment.

The Tescopoly Alliance is calling for:

* 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.
* Rules to protect workers’ rights at home and overseas.

Tesco currently operates in 12 countries and has plans at various levels of development to enter a further 3.
After a gradual expansion into Ireland and an unsuccessful expansion into France in the 1990s, Tesco began a rapid
expansion in the late 1990s into emerging markets focusing on Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. These areas have
relatively undeveloped grocery retail markets but are undergoing rapid changes and provide huge potential markets
for companies such as Tesco. Tesco has succeeded in becoming among the top retailers in a few Eastern European
countries, has ambitious plans in China, is attempting to enter India, and is also soon to open its first stores in the US.

Source: www.tescopoly.org