Tesco CEO Terry Leahy congratulated the Competition Commission for "not getting sucked into the general uninformed clamour" about supermarkets' profitability. Admitting he was "a little surprised" by the positive comments from the Commission in what was, after all, only an interim report, he went on: "I welcome their statement that, in effect, there is no Rip-off Britain in grocery. It would have been so easy for them not to make a contribution on that basis. "They have done their own research and after 18 months have recognised there is only limited evidence of excessive profitability being achieved. And it's especially interesting that the Commission's evidence also suggests the food prices trend is lower in the UK than in some comparable European countries. "But, even more importantly, they have highlighted the high levels of consumer satisfaction with the performance of supermarkets in the UK. At the end of the day, that's the most important thing." Leahy believes the Commission is open minded on the issue of supplier relationships, and he pledged Tesco would continue to contribute to this debate. On land and location issues, which will continue to be probed by the Commission, the Tesco chief executive claimed there was no evidence of operators being squeezed out of sites. And in an obvious swipe at competitors' earlier allegations that Tesco and Sainsbury enjoyed a monopoly in the south east, Leahy added: "The south east is as competitive as anywhere else, and anyone could have opened there. "It's important not to try and get the government to make up for a management failure." {{COVER FEATURE }}

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