Tesco to create 2000 new jobs in Scotland

 

Author - Douglas Hamilton © The Herald Originally published: 24/8/2010

Tesco plans to create 2000 new jobs in Scotland during the current year as it expands its supermarket empire north of the border, Britain’s number one grocery chain has told The Herald.

The UK’s biggest retailer by sales has a staff of more than 25,000 people in Scotland, and is one of the country’s biggest private sector employers. It has about 150 stores north of the border, ranging from small, corner-shop operations to massive superstores that sell a variety of goods as well as food.

Tesco, which operates in the UK, Ireland, France, Eastern Europe, Asia and the United States, also said its newest Scottish supermarket will open in Glasgow’s St Enoch Centre early next month, creating 100 full and part-time jobs.

The company also has a number of other stores in the planning stage, including a controversial superstore and residential development in Glasgow’s Partick district, and intends to modernise older supermarkets.

Sarah Mackie, the local category director for Tesco, said the supermarket group is committed to buying more products from farmers in Scotland and other parts of the UK.

“This provides a big boost for the Scottish economy,” she told The Herald, adding that more than 1200 Scottish farmers supply Tesco with fresh quality beef and other products. Tesco sells more than £5 million in Scottish products every week, Mackie added.

Tesco recently conducted three “Taste of Scotland” road shows in Perth, Elgin and Glasgow to help promote Scottish food products.

It also has a Scottish buying team that scours the country for new products. The group is aiming to achieve £1 billion in local sales by 2011.

Tesco defines a local product as one that is produced and sold in Scotland, and in England as one which is produced and sold within any given county, or neighbouring county.

Mackie said Scottish products such as beef, lamb, salmon and shortbread are popular throughout the UK.

“Customers tell us they want more Scottish food products,” she said.

Tesco has a 32% share of the Scottish grocery market, slightly higher than its share of the overall UK market. Tesco’s UK grocery market share fell to 30.8% in the 12 weeks to August 8, according to recent data from Kantar World Panel.

Tesco is facing strong competition north of the border from Bradford-based Wm Morrison Supermarkets and Waitrose, the grocery arm of the John Lewis Partnership, which aims to capture more of the upmarket trade. Waitrose has two stores in Edinburgh and one in Glasgow.

It has won approval from East Renfrewshire Council to build a superstore in Newton Mearns, creating 200 jobs in the area. This will be Waitrose’s first purpose-built store in Scotland, the three others were set up in existing buildings.

Like Tesco, Waitrose has made a commitment to source many of its products from Scottish farmers and to boost the Scottish economy.

Grocery retailers in Scotland and other parts of the UK face challenging times as government moves to cut the massive natiional deficit take a bite out of the economy. Economists say UK families face the prospect of their lowest level of available cash in the final quarter of 2010 for two years.