Tesco, the UK’s biggest supermarket chain, has given its support to government plans to tackle the sale of cheap alcohol .
The retailer’s chief executive Sir Terry Leahy has welcomed the coalition government’s pledge to ban below-cost sales of alcohol in England and Wales, and said it would also back the introduction of minimum pricing of alcohol .
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, he said: “We welcome the new Government’s commitment to act on below-cost selling of alcohol and today I pledge that we will support Government-led action to make this happen across the UK.
“We will also support any future discussions on a minimum price for alcohol .”
His comments come after a poll of Tesco shoppers found that most though about excessive drinking and the anti-social behaviour it causes are one of the most serious issues facing the country.
Sir Terry added that as well as price rises, other measures were needed to help change Britain’s binge drinking culture such as providing clear information on units of alcohol on the front of packs for consumers to help drive behaviour change.
“Putting simple information on the front of the pack about salt and fat content has led to a big increase in the sale of healthier alternatives,” he said.
“So we will now do the same for alcohol on all our own-label products, bringing the information on units of alcohol from the back label to the front.”
He also said that Tesco would work with branded alcohol suppliers to ensure such labelling becomes an “industry-wide standard”.
