January 23, 2007 | posted by Michael Baxter in IABN |

The preliminary findings are out. And if bosses at Tesco and co were up all night worrying about it’s findings, maybe they’ll sleep a little better tonight.

The preliminary report said there is “no clear evidence that supermarket buyer power is reducing supplier innovation.” As for land planning, the report said there is: “Conflicting evidence on effect of planning controls; some say they are too restrictive, others that they are not restrictive enough.”

Peter Freeman, Chairman of both the Competition Commission and the Inquiry Group, said: “Our principal concern now is to focus on competition between retailers at the local level, where it most matters to consumers, as this is where many of the potential concerns we have would be evident.
“It would be a cause for concern if supermarkets, either individually or collectively, were in a position to increase prices or lower their offer in any particular locality or region because of lack of effective competition.
“We are not here to punish success or individual retailers but we are concerned with whether Tesco, or any other supermarket, can get into such a strong position, either nationally or locally, that no other retailer can compete effectively.
“We have considered the evidence supplied concerning relationships between grocery retailers and their suppliers. Whilst these haven’t indicated widespread problems in the supply chain, there are still concerns. We have found that bigger buyers do not always appear to get better terms from suppliers, and food and drink manufacturers and processors, as well as wholesalers, seem to be in reasonable shape.
“However, we have some concerns about farmers and we have not received as much specific evidence about unfair treatment of suppliers as we might have expected. There may well be many more examples out there but we need to hear them otherwise we would have difficulty coming to a conclusion. So we would appeal once more for suppliers with examples to come forward and assure them that requests for confidentiality will be taken on board.”