UK retailer Tesco has reached an agreement to stock its products at Pakistani chain Alpha Supermarkets, according to Reuters.
The publication said that Tesco has been expanding in emerging markets to boost declining growth in western Europe. Pakistan has a rapidly growing consumer market and developing middle class.
"We have agreed on a wholesale partnership with Alpha Supermarkets in Pakistan, under which Tesco products will be stocked at two of its stores," head of new market development Jared Lebel told Reuters.
The owner of the Pakistani supermarket chain, Limestone Private Limited, has plans to open 50 smaller-format express stores and four Alpha stores that will offer Tesco products, over the next three years.
A representative from Limestone said that products will be available in stores in ten days. It will be the only retailer to stock Tesco own-brand products, from food and non-food items, as well as fresh and frozen.
The partnership was originally announced by British High Commissioner Thomas Drew and Limestone at a press conference in Karachi on Tuesday.
Tesco had announced in January that it would merge with the country's largest wholesaler, Booker, in what the two groups have said will create ‘the UK’s leading food business’.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Karen Henderson. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
