Grocery behemoth Tesco is exploiting the “grey market” in a bid to corner the school wear market, slashing prices of its “back to school” clothes range by up to 35%.


Tesco currently controls a small 2.7% of the £2.5bn (US$3.6bn) market, but earlier this year a team was established to source products for the line at the lowest possible prices.


The company claims its grey market sourcing has knocked around £230 off the price of an average family’s back to school shop, and revealed that it is anxious to garner sales from the sector’s leaders Marks & Spencer (which controls 12% of the market), BHS (8.5%) and Woolworths (7.3%).


This is not the first time Tesco has resorted to the grey market for sourcing cheaper goods. The grocer is due to appear at the European Court of Justice later this year to battle US giant Levi’s over its sale of cut-price designer jeans.

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