Tesco supermarket shareholders take a stand against junk food

Tesco, the first British supermarket brand, is under pressure from some of its shareholders to fight against junk food. In the country, which has the most overweight people in Europe, while the Covid-19 pandemic particularly affects this category of the population, they believe that the group has a heavy responsibility for the poor diet of the British.

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In total, a hundred individual shareholders and seven investment funds submitted a resolution on Tuesday February 9 to force the brand to publish the share of food and drinks each year. “Healthy” (as defined by the UK Department of Health) that it sells, and to compel it to produce a strategy for “Increase it significantly” by 2030. The resolution will be put to the vote of all shareholders at the group’s general meeting in early summer.

Among the seven funds are the Dutch Robeco, the British JO Hambro, as well as funds linked to charities (Jesuits in Britain, Guy’s and St Thomas’Charity, Epworth Investment Management, which is the fund of the Methodist Church … ). The shareholders are coordinated by ShareAction, a shareholder activism association, which began by attacking bosses ‘salaries, then companies’ greenhouse gas emissions, and has been addressing the issue of junk food since 2019.

Major liability

Tesco is the first company in the FTSE 100, the flagship index of the London Stock Exchange, to have to respond to such a resolution. “A handful of companies are contributing to an obesity crisis among young people, denounces Stephen Power, of Jesuits in Britain. Too often, healthy alternatives are too expensive or even unavailable. “ Shareholders condemn Tesco all the more, which has 27% of the market share of British large-scale distribution, that the brand knows how to do otherwise.

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In 2019, several UK supermarkets ran tests in stores in south London, the results of which were overseen by the University of Oxford. By introducing promotions on vegetables, Tesco increased their sales by 13%. By removing the gondola heads and the highlighting of chocolates for Easter, it reduced their sales by 22% (compared to stores that did not participate in the test).

By removing the promotion of chocolates for Easter, in a test in 2019, Tesco reduced their sales by 22%

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