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18 Dec 2002
The Office of Fair Trading has today announced that Tesco will be allowed to take over the convenience store chain T&S Stores [1], despite objections from environmental campaigners, the Institute of Asian Businesses and the Association of Convenience Stores.
Friends of the Earth wrote to the Office of Fair Trading and to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry calling for the takeover to be referred to the Competition Commission as it will damage consumer choice and local economies.
Friends of the Earth Food and Farming Campaigner Sandra Bell said:
"It beggars belief that this merger has been allowed to go ahead with no further investigation. The Secretary of State has ignored all the evidence that allowing Tesco to take over T&S will put more independent shops out of business destroying people's livelihoods and reducing consumer choice. It concentrates even more power in the hands of the UK's biggest multiple retailer which is bad news for farmers who already find their prices being squeezed to below the cost of production".
[1] T&S Stores plc includes the “One-Stop” and “Day and Nite” chains of stores.
Contact details:
Friends of the Earth
26-28 Underwood St.
LONDON
N1 7JQ
Tel: 020 7490 1555
Fax: 020 7490 0881
Web: www.foe.co.uk/feedback.html
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