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Marketing Society - Retail Forum 2007 - Keep Tesco free of regulation says Mulcahy

Wednesday September 26th 2007

Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy, chairman of the British Retail Consortium, believes there is no need for regulations to be imposed on Tesco in order to hold back its continued aggressive growth in the UK.

By Glynn Davis

Despite the supermarket's rapid rate of expansion Mulcahy told delegates at the Marketing Society Retail Forum this week that it is inevitable such strong businesses will find their growth stalling at some point and t hat this makes it unnecessary to bring in regulations against it.

“We absolutely do not need more regulations. What have appeared to be impregnable positions in the past have at the end of the day ended as something has happened. It is far better not to regulate as businesses rise and fall and customers will determine who are the winners and the losers. Tesco management has done a fantastic job but history shows it is difficult to identify retailers with uninterruptible growth. It takes a lot of skill to keep a brand moving,” he suggests.

He cites Woolworths in the 1930s, which was then the fastest growing merchant in the world, but which now only exists in the UK, Germany and Australia as an example of how dominance can come to an end. And also Wal-Mart, which he says is proving unsuccessful with its overseas plans.

Mulcahy also spoke of the power of the internet as a revolutionary force that was on its way to having a much bigger impact on the retail industry than hypermarkets have done since they first appeared on the scene. “It's still at a very early stage and is only a small percentage of sales but its implications will be far more reaching than with hypermarkets,” he predicts.

This is because it has myriad uses including providing: a way for customers to research products; an opportunity to give customers unrivalled choice; the economics to enable better value to be offered; an opportunity for small independent retailers to compete against larger rivals.


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