A veteran businessman and well-known in the BBC’s The Apprentice series – which returns this week – has launched an attack on the troubled retailing giant Tesco, warning that it is “running on empty” after losing the goodwill of both customers and suppliers.
Nick Hewer, who has been scrutinising UK supermarkets’ supply chains through his work with the Fairtrade Foundation on bananas, said British shoppers were “fair people” who resented supermarkets apparently squeezing their suppliers or “barging” into towns where they were not wanted.
Hewer, also host of Channel 4’s Countdown TV programme and a fan of farming, is backing the Fairtrade Foundation’s campaign to get all supermarkets to sell 100% Fairtrade bananas and to give shoppers more transparent pricing. It wants the government to intervene in a banana price war in supermarkets that is putting pressure on suppliers and could lead to shortages. A petition to business secretary Vince Cable has attracted 70,000 signatures.
The foundation, which aims to protect farmers in developing countries, says the price of bananas in UK supermarkets has nearly halved in the past 10 years to just 11p while farmers have seen production costs double.
At a London conference on Wednesday to mark the 20th anniversary of the Fairtrade label, Hewer will hail the economic support given by Fairtrade to overseas farmers, following his recent visit to banana producers in St Lucia, one of the Windward Islands. He will highlight that fact that three UK retailers – Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and the Co-operative – already stock 100% Fairtrade and urge others including Tesco – the UK’s largest banana retailer with nearly 30% of the market – to follow suit.
Hewer told the Guardian ahead of the event: “I think that Tesco’s failure – no matter what they say – to engender any sort of loyalty among its suppliers or affection amongst its consumers will now hurt them. Waitrose has over the years built a reservoir of goodwill but Tesco is running on empty.”
Acknowledging the competition of discounters such as Aldi and Lidl, Hewer went on: “I know that all the supermarkets are hurting in the face of the price cutters but I think the reservoir of goodwill that people like the Co-op and Waitrose and Sainbury’s [have] will stand them in good stead.”
One in three bananas sold in the UK is Fairtrade and if all the supermarkets went 100% that would be a major step forward.”
His intervention comes as Tesco’s chief executive Dave Lewis is battling to revive the retailer’s sales and also restore calm after the recent discovery of a £250m accounting black hole relating to the possible misreporting of payments for suppliers. Last week the retailer ditched plans to build a huge superstore on Margate’s seafront in the latest sign of its retreat from aggressive expansion.
Responding to Hewer’s criticism of the chain’s relationships with supplier and customers, a Tesco spokesperson said: “We have positive long-term relationships with our suppliers. More than 1,500 of our suppliers have worked closely with us for five years or more, and we are proud to work with them to deliver the best quality products for our customers.”
He went on: “We are strong supporters of Fairtrade and are one of the biggest Fairtrade retailers in the UK. But – as the Fairtrade Foundation itself recognises – what matters are the sourcing practices, not the label. We have direct relationships with our banana farmers and pay them on average 6% above the Fairtrade Minimum Price. We are also unique in having in-house local technical and ethical experts based in banana growing regions, who work directly with farmers to improve conditions.”
The Fairtrade mark first appeared in the UK in 1994 on just three products. But 20 years on, UK shoppers can choose from over 4,500 Fairtrade products including tea, coffee, cocoa, chocolate, bananas, sugar, cotton, gold, cut flowers, wine and cosmetics.
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