Our suppliers

Promise 2008

We will continue to develop and maintain strong relationships with all our suppliers, based on our core values - 'treating people how we like to be treated' and being 'fair, responsible and honest' in everything we do.

In particular we will:

• develop a plan to increase the number of suppliers who regard us as being trustworthy, reliable, consistent, clear, helpful and fair, building on the 92% of suppliers in the UK who view us in this way;
• develop local ranges throughout the business including by setting targets for growth; in the UK we aim to increase sales on local products by more than 30% by March 2009;
• continue our support for UK farmers, including trebling our sales of localchoice milk by 2009;
• help our dairy farmers to reach best environmentally friendly dairy farming practice within five years, through our Tesco Sustainable Dairy Project;
• work with suppliers to develop long-term, mutually beneficial relationships, for example by training our buyers to follow codes of conduct and best practice;
• develop our Nature's Choice programme to help our suppliers, including those in developing countries, raise safety, quality and environmental standards;
• clearly label all own-brand eggs to ensure that customers understand whether they are from caged, barn or free range hens; and
• redesign our farming website to ensure greater levels of information on animal welfare, more than any other retailer, so that customers can make an even more informed choice.