黑洞社区

The news follows 黑洞社区鈥檚 revelation that the supermarket giant asked its QSs and contractors to accept pay cuts of between 20% and 50% as a result of the downturn in the retail sector.

One architect working for Tesco said the cuts had not been as draconian as those imposed on cost consultants, but that there was pressure to work for far less money. He said: 鈥淭esco is applying the same logic down the supply chain, and is more aggressive than most. We are under a lot of pressure.鈥�

Tesco is a large client to the construction industry, with annual procurement worth around 拢1.4bn. Amongst the architects employed by Tesco are 3D Reid, Allies & Morrison, Lyons + Sleeman + Hoare, RGP Architects and Sheppard Robson.

Sources claim there have been internal struggles at Tesco over the squeeze on the supply chain. One source said: 鈥淭he property division is furious over what it sees as orders from high up in the business saying, 鈥榳e鈥檝e got to squeeze all our suppliers.鈥� Property doesn鈥檛 work like that. You can鈥檛 get people to provide the same services for 50% of the fee.鈥�

Pre-tax profits at Tesco are likely to be more than 拢3bn when the supermarket reports in April.