Safeway boss fires parting shot at Tesco
Supermarket top dog becoming ‘unreachable’
March 6 2004
Tesco is well on the way to becoming unchallengeable in its dominance of UK retail, the departing chief of Safeway has warned.
Speaking at the end of his final week at the helm of Safeway, chief executive Carlos Criado-Perez suggested that the UK’s biggest retailer has been given too much of a free hand by the UK regulators.
He told the Guardian newspaper: “Tesco will just sail away. It will become unreachable, and the Competition Commission has perpetrated that. The only thing that could bring Tesco down is its management, and they do not make mistakes.”
[img r]Tesco2copy.jpg[/img]The comments came on the day Tesco’s acquisition of 45 convenience stores from Adminstore was cleared by the OFT. Many of the stores are in high profile central London locations. Some observers have suggested the clearance gives Tesco scope to continue to expand its Tesco Express format though a series of relatively small acquisitions.
[img l]asdasutton1.jpg[/img]Criado-Perez said he believes a combination of Safeway and Asda would have been best able to compete effectively with Tesco. Safeway had been expecting a move by Wal-Mart owned Asda throughout his four years at the company, and was surprised when the Competition Commission ruled out Asda acquiring the business.
Criado-Perez is one of several senior executives leaving Safeway this week in advance of Morrisons takeover. Sir Ken Morrison, executive chairman, is due to arrive at Safeway’s head office on Monday where he will hold a series of meetings with staff to outline plans for the integration of the two chains.
