Examination of Witnesses (Questions 915-919)
4 DECEMBER 2003
MR RICHARD
ALI, MR
DAVID CROFT,
MRS SUSAN
BROMLEY, MS
PENNY COATES
AND MR
DAVID NORTH
Q915 Chairman: Good morning. Can I welcome
you to this session of the Committee, I particularly welcome our
witnesses today, we are very grateful for your co-operation with
our inquiry and particularly for your written evidence, which
has been very helpful to the Committee. Can I ask you to introduce
yourselves to the Committee and say a bit about the background
of the organisation that you represent?
Mr Ali: Good morning.
My name is Richard Ali, I am Director of Food Policy at the British
Retail Consortium. The British Retail Consortium is a member organisation,
we act on behalf of our members as the voice of retailing. We
also disseminate and encourage best practice among retail.
Mr Croft: Good morning, I am David
Croft and I look after the own brand range at the Co-operative
Group. The Co-operative Group is the largest consumer-owned co-op
in the world. We have somewhere in the region of one million members,
individual consumer members, who form a direct part of our managing
board. As a retailer we operate about 1,800 of our own stores
and supply to another 1,500 Co-op stores round the country. The
stores are largely very small in nature and usually located in
the centre of communities. Unlike our competitors we do not operate
large superstores.
Mrs Bromley: My name is Susan
Bromley, I am member of David Croft's team within the Cooperative
Group. I look after the Co-op brand and also help with the development
of own brand products.
Ms Coates: I am Penny Coates,
I look after own brand for ASDA. ASDA is an organisation with
265 stores, we employ about 100,000 people in the United Kingdom
and serve about 11 million customers a week.
Mr North: Good morning, my name
is David North, I am the Government Affairs Director of Tesco.
Tesco is the United Kingdom's most popular retailer, with more
than 12 million customers. We also operate in 10 other countries
outside of the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom we have 230,000
staff.
Dr Naysmith: Can I make it clear that
I have a non-pecuniary interest in that I am member of two major
co-operatives, one of which is giving evidence today. I just want
to register that.
John Austin: Could I register a similar
interest.
Mr Bradley: And can I register a similar
interest.
Q916 Chairman: Anybody else? Can I just
begin by clarifying a couple of points, Mr Ali, can you perhaps
give us one or two examples of retailers within your consortium
that we would recognise and know about?
Mr Ali: Among our
membership we have Tesco, ASDA, Safeway, J Sainsbury, Waitrose,
Marks & Spencer, Spar, the Co-operative Group, Dewhurst Butchers
and on the non-food side it ranges from Jones the bootmaker to
Debenhams.
Q917 Chairman: You have a range of different
types of organisations.
Mr Ali: A huge
range, we represent big, small, town centre, out of town and rural
across the country.
Q918 Chairman: Ms Coates, I am interested
in the evidence that you have given us in respect of the way your
company is looking at the issue of healthier foods, et cetera.
Out of interest has the acquisition by Wal-Mart—bearing
in mind the American knowledge of the obesity issue—had
a bearing on the thinking of your organisation in respect of obesity?
Ms Coates: It has
not. I have worked in the food area of ASDA for several months
since the acquisition of Wal-Mart and from the relations with
Wal-Mart we have learned a lot about the non-food operation and
they have been more involved in but for the food operation I can
say we have had no dealings whatsoever.
Q919 Chairman: It has had no bearing
on your thoughts on this issue?
Ms Coates: No.
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