Tescos News Report – Do They Care About Their Suppliers?

Does Tesco really care about their suppliers? For this topic, we do have some mixed comments. Recently we had multiple complaints from suppliers across the UK complaining about the way Tesco treats its suppliers and whether it cares about them or not.

We’ve heard the phrase again and again “we use our scales for good” this phrase used to convince people that they use their size for good causes, to help others but how is realistically true is that?

One of the many farms across the UK dealing with Tesco for more than five years now as their supplier complained that the company used fact that they are biggest food retailer in the UK to threaten them in a deal

Now this tells me that Tesco has not kept the promise but instead used it for the wrong reason, as an advantage for them to get what they really want and forgetting about the supplier

Pig farmers protest at Tesco annual meeting

A source of complaint online explained that out of 200 variety of apples In the UK, Tesco only stocks 7. This means that firstly they don’t really care about the UK supplier at all and they rather deal with suppliers abroad than those in the UK, they own territories. Secondly, they are not using their scale for good like they say. Another source complaining about this problem said that supermarkets in the UK did well in providing organic variety, but only 23 % of Tesco apples were actually from the UK and worst 56% of Tesco organic apples from outside the EU. To me, this does not only prove betrayal but ignorance towards the UK suppliers, it emphasise the fact that they do not treat their suppliers well as they would like to be treated.

On the other hand, there are still those who are still under the charm of Tesco.

Some suppliers have praised Tesco for their help and for taking them responsible for their success. They have spoken about their relationship with the retail giant and how they have benefited from this relationship. A source explained how Tesco protect and promotes their relationship with their suppliers.

Some suppliers stated that their partnership with the company allow them to have a certain and growing market for their products. This emphasises the importance of the suppliers to Tesco.

Tesco has also been praising their suppliers by putting their success down to them, explaining how the variety and quality of goods from the suppliers brought about this growth in their success.

Customers

Is Tesco maintaining a sustainable relationship with its customers?

Tesco has always been promoting their relationship with the customers and we’re all aware of the promising Tesco offers popping up on social media, through TV adverts and newspapers. This seems like the absolute method that a business company like Tesco would use to get more customers

A till receipt is printed out at the checkout counter at a Tesco supermarket in London, UK

They say they listen and care about the customers, but yet they are the ones loosing share to competitors like Aldi. Why is this?

Outraged customers recently complained in an online article saying that Tesco did abuse of the trust they put in them and that they care more about the transactional relationship.

As a customer, there are many unpleasant things that Tesco has done which has seen their customers reducing and leaving them for their competitors. We witnessed the horse meat scandal which rocked the country for example. This issue caused a lack of trust in customers and made them feel like they have been betrayed by Tesco.

Last year alone Tesco has received more complaints from customer than Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s put together according to the Advertising Standards Authority. Last October, in an article from” this is money” found a rock in his sandwich and complained about the quality of it. This proves the lack of quality and care from Tesco towards their customers.

The fact that they are losing customers to their competitors is probably due to their overpriced products and the lack of care towards their customers. If they cared so much like they say and took the complaints of customers seriously they wouldn’t be having so much trouble.

According to a daily mail article, Tesco has been fined £300,000 for misleading thousands of customers over a half-price strawberry promotion. The company pretended selling the strawberries for £1.99 which was previously £3.99 but instead kept the product at the original price of £3.99 for a couple of weeks. Secondly, the promotion was supposed to run for 14 weeks but instead ran for much shorter than that.

Some sources online argue that Tesco would need to do more than that to win the hearts of customers and in some case get back the trust of others.

Shareholders

When it comes to the shareholders, Tesco has said that they do listen and care about their shareholders that they will try and keep them happy through the toughest time.

One of the things Tesco has done to keep that promise was to keep the dividend of shareholders at a good level from 2011/12 to 2014. This helped build the trust and loyalty between the shareholders and Tesco.

Just a few weeks ago, Tesco found themselves in the middle of some very nasty troubles. They have overstated their profit which has seen their share prices wiped off by 8.3%, this fell from 2.10 to just 19 pence in just days.

This type of troubles is obviously going to have some negative effect on their shareholders. Due that problem, the worth of their shares has seriously decreased and they have lost a lot of shareholders. It will take them a really long time to rebuild the trust and the loyalty of their shareholders

Tesco’s share price in the last year, pictured, has been dropping and the company has issued three profit warnings in as many months

On the whole, I think that Tesco used to care about its customers but recent prices and quality of products suggests that they are changing their ways which makes me think that they may be abusing the trust of customer. As for the suppliers, the answer is still divided. Some say Tesco does care or listen to them but others disagree with that. Finally the shareholders have been lied to and it doesn’t look like Tesco cares about them either