Tesco has expressed interest in acquiring more than 100 Crown post offices whose future has been reviewed while the public company explores them to a franchise model.
Sky News learned that Nigel Railton, president of the post office, told a group of deputies this week that the largest British retailer had informed him of a potential interest in taking up the sites.
A deputy who attended the talks on the future of the branches directly managed said that Mr. Railton had given the impression in his remarks according to which Tesco was part of a small number of contenders who could take control of the whole of the 108 network.
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Find out more: Complete list of threatened crown sites
The fate of the crown post offices was questioned last fall as part of a wider strategic review Initiated by Mr. Railton, who took the post of president of the company after the dismissal of Henry Staunton by Kemi Badenoch, then secretary to business.
Collectively, branches employ nearly 1,000 people, many of these jobs likely to be safeguarded in the event of acquiring the entire network by a single retailer.
The meeting between Mr. Railton and more than 20 deputies was organized to discuss the future of directly managed branches, which constitute a very small part of the wider post office network.
Unions have expressed their concern about the plans of the company.
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After several surveys, Tesco finally replied by saying that he would not comment.
A spokesperson for the post office said: “We are fully committed to engaging openly and in a transparent manner with deputies concerning the potential plans linked to our branch network directly managed (DMB).
“Since we have invited expressions of interest for 108 post offices that we are currently operating, we have received interest from retail partners and independent post owners in the hundreds.
“We remain determined to engage with our unions on the potential future property of our directly managed branches, which are losses for us, in March before updating our colleagues who work in these branches on all the next potential steps.”
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