Forum calls for Tesco crackdown

Latest research which showing Tesco will soon be 'king of convenience stores' in Britain 's high streets provides further grounds for an urgent inquiry by the Competition Commission, said business pressure group, The Forum of Private Business (FPB). The Forum is pressing the Office of Fair Trading to order a full inquiry .

"Tesco already has nearly one third market share, and takes £1 of every £3 spent on groceries in Britain . Now latest research shows they have a 5.4% market share of convenience stores, which will make them the largest convenience store retailer by next year," said Nick Goulding, chief  executive of FPB, which champions the cause for more than 25,000 smaller firms throughout the UK .

"This provides even more proof that there is an urgent need to curb such extreme dominance which is so damaging to high street independents and  British producers alike. Tesco should never have been allowed into the convenience store market, where their unfair trading advantage is contributing  towards the closure of up to 50 high street independents a week,"  added the FPB.

The FPB called for a Competition Commission inquiry when it presented evidence last month to an All Party Parliamentary Group of MPs investigating  the future of British high streets.

"Unless the OFT act quickly, independent retailers in Britain 's towns will be a thing of the past," he added. "This will devastating as revenue generated  by independents retailers circulates back into the local economy, but the billions of pounds in profits taken by the likes of Tesco are siphoned away  from the local community. The quiet death of the high street means that more two thirds of us are now living in 'cloned towns', virtually indistinguishable from one another.  Business owners lose their businesses, their staff lose their jobs and consumers lose the rich diversity, fresh foods and wide choice of the traditional  high street."