Organisation: Tesco

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Analysis and commentary by Echo Research.

The collapse of the railway tunnel under a Tesco development site at Gerrards Cross seemed to provide all the right ingredients for a good media bashing: a giant retailer overriding local residents and retailers in a quest for more square metres and higher profits; the Deputy Prime Minister's personal authorisation of the controversial development; the necessary re-routing of mainline services; commuter misery; campaigners' delight. Some newspapers took the bait: " Railway tunnel collapse will cost Tesco millions" (Timesonline, 1/7), " Corks pop after tunnel collapse" (Guardian, 1/7), as anti-Tesco campaigners commented gleefully that " Tesco's reputation will be in tatters after this fiasco and they deserve all the flak they get" (Timesonline, 1/7). " Even the most virulent opponents of the store couldn't have expected the project to have come to grief in this way" noted Retail Week (1/7).

But it could have been far worse. Tesco eased some of the damage with an apology to commuters and a deferral of the issue of cost and blame until later, but Tesco-bashers, it seems, largely stayed away. Although Tesco frets over its image as an increasingly unpopular retail behemoth, the relatively understated reporting of the Gerrards Cross incident should help shore up its reputation for some time to come..