Seamus Scally, boss of Irish group Musgrave, has launched an attack on the Competition Commission report into supermarket pricing. "It's a great pity it didn't recommend any putative action on the various malpractices they found in relation to price fixing, monopoly and duopoly," he said, speaking at the Insight Research conference, The Future of Convenience'. "We knew it was going on. So why waste the British taxpeyers' money confirming it if they were going to do sweet damn all about it?" To say banning below cost selling "had not been very effective" in Ireland is "clearly nonsense," he added. "I'd be very interested to know who the Commission consulted in Ireland. If anybody." Concerning Tesco's foray into the Irish Republic, Scally noted: "My Supervalu supermarket owners' [like for like] sales were up 14% last year. My Centra c-store owners' sales were up 18%. And Tesco, who lost market share, could only manage 6%. "There really must be some soul searching in Cheshunt about the prudence of galloping unprepared into Ireland." The retention of the Groceries Order which bans below cost selling is also bad news for Tesco, he said. "The giants and discounters entered on the assumption it would be scrapped." Following the purchase of a stake in Budgens, Scally also had a message for Spar boss Morton Middleditch: "I'm on the mainland now. You'll have to watch your back." {{NEWS }}

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