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Published on October 31, 2007

Retail giant Tesco yesterday said it was optimistic goods from Thailand would sell well in its UK stores. But Tesco's international trading law and technical director Terry Babbs said manufacturers and producers here had to consider factors beyond price and product quality.

Chief among these is the demands of consumers in the UK and other countries, he said.

"Tesco's UK customers are keenly interested in where products come from, the way

they have been made or grown and who did that. They want to feel good about products

they buy and know that the people who made them were treated properly by employers," Babbs said.

"We have to be very clear with vendors who want to do business with us. They need to run their businesses in a way that gives us confidence."

He highlighted fair pay, legal employment conditions and workplace and workday fairness. Child labour was a strict no-no.

"Workers must be allowed to join unions if they want to and there may be no workplace discrimination or exploitation of women or Burmese workers," Babbs said.

Tesco applies these demands on all companies and countries it operates in. All companies are audited.

Babbs said local companies were good and needed small improvements only to better understand the UK market.

Tesco deals with 7,200 local sellers here. About 98 per cent are 100-per-cent locally owned.

"We see Thailand as an important source country for Tesco stores, particularly in the UK, where shoppers prefer Thai products, especially foods such as fruit, vegetables, chicken and seafood," he said.

He added that Tesco had found good manufacturing standards among local sellers and wanted to keep it that way. The company wanted to make sure produce was grown in a sustainable fashion.

Vendors had to focus on productivity and how they managed their workforce.

Babbs' job is to make sure all products purchased by Tesco worldwide meet the company's legal and safety standards.

Tesco has more than 3,500 stores in 13 countries, from the UK to the US and Hungary and Holland to Turkey and Thailand. It employs more than 400,000 people.

It has purchasing offices in places like Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, China and Thailand.

Last year, Thailand sold Tesco in the UK goods and produce worth Bt7.8 billion, of which Bt4.9 billion worth was food.

Babbs is visiting counties where the company does business and conducting workshops with its customers.

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

 The Nation