Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Takes On Tesco
Anyone got £86,888.00 to spare?
I know this is another news type post but it has just been brought to my attention and time, as they say is of the esscence on this one. Doubtless Hugh has read my magnum opus on pig farmers 
and decided to get tough on Tesco’s chicken policy…
Further to the River Cottage Chicken Out Campaign there is a new development regarding Hugh’s stance with supermarket giant Tesco.
Hugh submitted a resolution to Tesco on behalf of 102 Tesco shareholders which in turn represented over 3.7 million ordinary shares. The resolution challenged Tesco’s claims about its policy on poultry welfare and requested they did more on implementing new standards.
Tesco have told Hugh that they will only take his resolution to the AGM if he (Hugh) meets the cost of distributing the relevent documents to their shareholders. Despite an attempt to waive the fee by Hugh in “the interest of shareholder democracy” Tesco are refusing to do so.
If Hugh doesn’t pay £86,888.00 to print and post all of the documents to its shareholders then the resolution is finished. In an e-mail Hugh has stated that being the biggest retailer in Britain, Tesco could make a huge difference to the quality of life to hundreds of millions of chickens if they chose to do so.
Hugh is putting £30,000.00 of his own money into the pot but is looking to raise the remaining £56,000 through auctioning special River Cottage prizes. The monies must be in place by this wednesday, the 11th of June. For more details of the prizes on offer visit rivercottage.net.
Fair play to Hugh who recently won a ‘green’ award from the Observer newspaper for his work on highlighting the plight of intensively farmed poultry. I would be slightly suprised if he manages to get the money in time, especially in today’s current financial climate where everyone is talking themselves into a recession.
Tesco have shot themselves in the foot here - they make a fortune and this penny pinching simply serves to reinforce the David and Goliath image of HFW against the supermarket giant.
£86k to Tescos is not worth the bad publicity
Rod
June 10, 2008 @ 7:45 am
Miles,
Battery chicken portions must bring in a pile of money for businesses like Tesco. Cheap chicken portions are easy and versatile to cook and the customers are falling for it every time. The Government should be all over this subject now not just in the future, but won’t get any points from the foolish customers or the greedy supermarkets.
What we want is reasonably priced free range chickens…. shouldn’t be that difficult surely?
To HFW, the very best of luck.
Cid
June 10, 2008 @ 8:49 am
Good points, they do seem to be playing into Hugh’s arms even if he doesn’t raise the money.
The newspapers will be all over this and Channel 4 will watching developments ready for another programme.
Hope he does it.
Miles
June 10, 2008 @ 3:52 pm