Asda’s ceo Andy Bond has said focusing on supermarket activity in the convenience-store sector is too narrow a target for the Office of Fair Trading and it should instead be looking at reining in planning regulations to limit Tesco growth.
In a report by The Guardian last weekend, Bond said: “They are shooting at the wrong target. We want a tightening of planning regulations ... We want choice and competition to be an element of the planning regime.”
The OFT is considering referring the multiples to the Competition Commission for investigation and is expected to make a preliminary decision sometime in March.
But Bond has referred to Tesco’s and Sainsbury's move into the c-store sector as secondary concerns with planning being the key issue in limiting Tesco dominance.
Sainsbury's ceo Justin King had earlier called for a clampdown on the planning regime to halt Tesco’s buying of land to open stores close to existing outlets.
Both ceos want local councils to be forced to look at how many stores a supermarket has in an area when it rules on new development proposals.
“We want the convenience store inquiry out of the way so that we can start to talk about planning,” Bond was reported. “Then we can get on with the real debate about choice…I don't want to be seen as the whinger of the industry. Asda can grow irrespective of the outcome of this inquiry ... but the OFT is shooting at too narrow a target.”
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