Tesco Offering School Clothing Embroidered - at VERY CHEAP prices.

[ASLCreative]

I accidentally came across this today and couldn't believe my eyes - http://www.clothingattesco.com/back-to- ... ktoschool/

Tesco are offering a full embroidery service on school uniform:

Polo shirts with school logo on - £3.75 including embroidery.

Sweatshirts - £6.50 including embroidery


Plus the school gets 5% back from Tesco, the parents get clubcard points and FREE delivery.

Parents can even nominate the school for inclusion.

If this catches on, it could seriously affect some local embroidery businesses and school wear suppliers.

Why can't Tesco just stick to food.

[smo]

Yay.....:frown:

[socialgiraffe]

They have been testing this for years. About four-five years ago my ex business partner scum and I approached Tesco about offering a school uniform embroidery service. The idea was that we could service local Tesco shops and that eventually they could set this up across the country.

Had about 12 meetings with them and all was looking very positive, then all of a sudden it went very quiet and we could not get any further with the deal. Six months later they rolled out the service at a few stores to test the market, they purchased the machinery and took the whole thing in house and stole the whole idea.

[ASLCreative]

I looked into this a bit further and discovered that Tesco DO NOT do their own embroidery now - they give it to a logistics company third axim who then sub-contract it out to embroidery companies around the UK/world.

No doubt the companies that do the embroidery will have a contract that prevents them from talking about what they do.

Very worrying though, because once that infrastructure is in place, other Supermarket chains like Asda, Marks and Spencer will want to offer such a service.

It is the smaller local independent clothing shops that I fear for - they often rely on the school uniform to boost their income.

[jennywren]

Socialgiraffe I always smile when you write "my ex business partner scum" does he still do the same thing as you, if so he might be a member of the forum,

[Paul]

Simon, do you have it copied in your clipoard all the time and just use ctrl+v???
maybe you could use short to save youself typing? :d ie. "mebps"
psorry, couldn't resist

[socialgiraffe]

Hi Jennywren

He does, although he is not very successful, turnover was less than 20k last year including VAT which he has been charging on a fake VAT number which has been reported! I suspect his profit was about 8k as he still uses the same prices from about 5 years ago yet materials have gone up.

He is not a member on here, I know this for certain. Trust me, if he ever does join this forum I will find out and will subsequently probably be banned because of the abuse I will send the thieving ...(insert your own words here)... way

Sorry to go off topic!

[Andrew]

They have been testing this for years. About four-five years ago my ex business partner scum and I approached Tesco about offering a school uniform embroidery service. The idea was that we could service local Tesco shops and that eventually they could set this up across the country.

Had about 12 meetings with them and all was looking very positive, then all of a sudden it went very quiet and we could not get any further with the deal. Six months later they rolled out the service at a few stores to test the market, they purchased the machinery and took the whole thing in house and stole the whole idea.

You'll have people sharpening their spears for you now that you have admitted it was your idea for Tesco to take over the School embroidery market.

You were probably better off not getting the contract as they would have screwed you into the ground and eventually spat you out if it went National. I don't mind dealing with the likes of Tesco on a local basis but as soon as head office is involved I would run for the hills.

Glad to see you are not one to hold a grudge....... "ex-business partner scum". Love it! I see that phrase quite often and it does make you want to know more. I have quite a few customers like you with ex-business partners who they hate and the slightest mention of anything to do with them and it's hard hat time. Hope you are doing far better than your ex in business currently.


Edit after above post crossing: glad to see you are doing better than him and he's worse off.

[socialgiraffe]

I think you are right about Tesco. When I talked to my accountant about them he had said that over the years he knew of three small companies that almost went bust because of them. Basically they will screw you right down on the price and then hold off paying you for as long as possible.

I think that the schools need to look at themselves regarding signing up with Tesco or any other company. The school that my daughter attends scrapped local suppliers and instead signed up with School Blazer.com. It now costs £85.00 for a blazer for her and the total cost of the uniform for her in reception class is £380.00 as she has a winter and summer uniform. Bearing in mind the rate that these blighters grow it means the total cost for uniform per year is probably double.

I emailed the school regarding the fact that they should be supporting local business and to be fair to them they have said they will review it at the end of the school year. I made it quite clear that I was not interested in being a supplier but felt that they should support the local economy. I did point out that one of the four per year (yes FOUR!!!) school photographs was handled by a company based in Devon and that this is also wrong. Their answer was very interesting. They simply said that with photography they have always looked to find local suppliers but not one has approached them, they admit that they have certain criteria (i.e. web based ordering system, must have the benches for the whole school photo etc) and would be willing to use any local business if they were suitable. I found this interesting because I wonder how many of us sit and complain about the likes of Tesco (among others) but have not done anything about trying to win the business.

[Andrew]

Very right. If you don't ask you don't get. It is to easy to sit around whinging when you could get a nice piece of the pie yourself. Many people would be surprised what type and size of company you can get into even being quite small.