Supermarket giant Tesco came out fighting today after weekend speculation that the Competition Commission would try to force the retailer to sell its land bank.
Tesco executive director Lucy Neville-Rolfe blamed competing supermarkets for press reports that the Competition Commission will find that the retailer’s unused property portfolio prevents rivals from entering local markets.
“I would be surprised if the Competition Commission wanted to favour those who had called the market wrong in the past and hurt consumers by penalising competitive success.
“Tesco’s land pipeline reflects our flexible and innovative approach which goes with the grain of government policy.
“We build stores of different sizes, often in deprived areas and on contaminated land others won’t touch and parcel together sites so we can invest in town centres, always taking risks on planning approval.
“This approach is one our competitors – who seem to be behind this speculation – could have taken but chose not to!”, she said.
The competition regulator is due to publish its so-called ’emerging thinking’ next week, flagging up the areas they will be considering for the duration of their investigation into supermarkets.
There has been speculation that at least two of the six panel members are arguing that Tesco’s vast unused property portfolio stymies rivals from entering local markets.
Of the big four supermarkets, Tesco, Britain’s biggest retailer, was found to own 55% of the 319 land bank sites identified by the Office of Fair Trading, which kicked off the investigation.
The Competition Commission, headed by Peter Freeman, the regulators chairman, will also release an independent poll of supermarket suppliers next week, which is expected to be good news for the biggest retailers.
The big four, Tesco, Asda, J Sainsbury’s and Wm Morrison have been accused of using their combined muscle to squeeze suppliers in an anti-competitive way.
Tesco’s competitors have openly criticised the growing dominance of Tesco.
References: EGi News 08/01/07
