Tesco stretches empire to embrace the Western aisles

THE supermarket giant Tesco has long been criticised for its dominance of the grocery market in Scotland, but 50 shoppers queuing in Stornoway at 8am yesterday gave their backing for the company's first foray into the Outer Hebrides.

Until this month, the Northern and Western Isles were the only Tesco-free areas of Scotland, but in successive weeks the supermarket giant has opened stores in Kirkwall, Lerwick and on Lewis.

The retailer now has a foothold in every postcode area in Scotland.

Yesterday, there was no evidence of the acrimony associated with the company in so-called "Tesco towns" such as Perth and Inverness, where the supermarket has a 60 and 56 per cent share of the market respectively.

The early-morning shoppers were greeted by a banner that declared: "Failte gu Tesco Steornabhagh" (Welcome to Tesco Stornoway) and bilingual signs were apparent throughout the store.

First in line was Christine Munro, from nearby Newmarket, who said: "There is more choice and these prices are good."

Moira Baker, of Great Bernera, admitted she was a Tesco fan and added: "It's been a long time coming. We always shop in Tesco on the mainland."

Donna Macleod, of Point, said: "There is certainly more choice and the prices are good across the range that I buy."

Doug Wilson, Tesco corporate affairs manager, said he was delighted with the first-day response. "The feedback from customers has been fantastic, they are happy to see us here. There was a queue of about 50 people waiting outside at 8am and by 8:15am we had about 150 people in the store. It was fantastic to see that amount of people."

Jonathan Merriman, the new store's manager, said it was using produce from the island's Stag Bakery and would welcome the chance to work with other local producers.

The opening will provide fresh competition for the Co-op store on the other side of Stornoway, which still appeared busy yesterday.

One Co-op worker said: "It's understandable that people will go and have a look around now that Tesco is open. But people here in the islands are smart; they will compare prices. The Co-op is still cheaper on a lot of essentials.

"They'll be back," the worker said. "I don't think I need look for another job just yet."

In February, the Competition Commission announced plans for an independent UK ombudsman for grocery retailers.

Proposals also included moves to have supermarkets face a "competition test" as part of the planning process, which could allow the Scottish Government to set different rules for the expansion of big chains and tackle the dominance of bigger retailers.

BACKGROUND

THE opening of new supermarkets in the Northern and Western Isles means Tesco now has about 2,200 stores across the UK.

The most northerly outlet in the Tesco empire is the store in Lerwick, which opened on 14 July.

Inverness already has three Tesco stores. Plans for a fourth were rejected by Highland councillors amid objections from local residents.

Outside the UK, the firm has 1,614 stores – 814 in Asia, 747 in Europe and 53 in the US.

It operates in 12 countries apart from the UK – Ireland, Slovakia, Poland, Turkey, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, China, Japan and South Korea.

Tesco has more than 100,000 staff in its premises worldwide, serving more than 15 million customers and generating sales of £7.6 billion.