Tesco Supermarket Supply Chain Free Essay Example, 3250 words

In addition, this may also require that the companies operating on the international markets to enhance their capability of supervising the movement of products across the supply chains. Supply Chain Obstacles: Case of Tesco and the 2013 Horse Meat Scandal Tesco is one of the world’s largest retail chains in terms of revenues and profits. Headquartered in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, the British multinational retailer is not only a market leader in the UK but is also currently operating stores in more than 12 countries across Europe and Asia. The Tesco supermarket supply chain is one of the most collaboration-dependent supply chains. This is owing to the fact that the sales made by a supermarket are largely defined by the efficiency with which the suppliers deliver commodities to the supermarket. However, In January 2013, the British media reported one of the biggest cases of food fraud in the recent times, involving a massive adulteration of meat products particularly burgers sold by Tesco and other retail outlets across Europe. Following the revelation, Tesco was rocked by a sales slide in nearly 9 of its 11 global markets with significant sales decline being experienced even in non food items being sold by the giant retailer (Felicity L. We will write a custom essay sample on Tesco Supermarket Supply Chain or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now 2013, p. 2). As Tesco and other European retail outlets such as Nestle, Taco Bell and Ikea are still struggling to assure their consumers of the safety of their food products, the impact of the meat adulteration scandal on the Britain’s biggest supermarket revealed a number of contemporary challenges and obstacles that need to be overcome in order to achieve successful supply chain management. 1. Difficulty to Track or Guarantee Transparency of the Supply One of the major global supply chain management obstacles and problems that can be derived from the case of Tesco following the 2013 horsemeat scandal in which a significant percentage of horse DNA was found beef burgers sold in the outlets of the giant supermarket is the difficulty of tracking the products from their original source due to the complexity of the long interlinked cross supply chains thereby making it difficult to oversight the suppliers and guarantee their transparency. For example, in Tesco’s situation, the supply chain for supermarket is highly complex, since the supermarkets rely on the goodwill of its suppliers and the delivery of a variety of food products by a supermarket to its customers is highly dependent on the transparency of the suppliers in delivering the products to the supermarket(BBC News, 2013:n. p.).