Last week, news appeared that Tesco are trucking chickens from Scotland to Essex to be slaughtered and packed before trucking them all the way back to Scotland to go on sale – a round trip of 1,000 miles.
Needless to say, environmentalists pounced on this as yet another example of how Tesco are contributing to the climate change crisis.
But wait a minute, why would Tesco do this? Trucking the birds 1,000 miles adds transport costs and lead time to their supply chain. Are the supply chain managers at Tesco really that stupid?
Of course not: it turns out that they were using a processing plant in Scotland but it closed last year so they were forced to send the birds elsewhere. Apparently, a new plant is due to be licensed in Scotland soon so the birds will get less travel sick (not that they will care!)
Maybe the people at Tesco are not so crazy after all.
