AS a Nestl pensioner (28 happy years with Findus) I found Paul Grimwood's leaked memo (Nestl Chief 'Changes' Memo, January 27) understandable.

Also, understandably, he chose not to mention the real reasons behind the very tough market place.

In my opinion, it is the growing and overwhelming power of the likes of Tesco and Asda, continually demanding lower and lower prices and bigger and bigger promotional and advertising bonuses from every manufacturer.

This is called "negotiation". But failure to comply often leads to your products being delisted, ie removed from their shelves.

Speak to your local farmer about the insultingly low prices he receives from the multiples for his products. Many are driven into bankruptcy.

When you next visit your chosen multiple, seduced by their glitzy advertising of "lowest this", "lowest that", "every little helps", etc, or open your newspaper to see the big boss of Tesco gloating beside his laden shopping trolley full of even lower priced products, do ask yourself who really is paying for all these price cuts?

For sure it won't be the multiple.

You may think, "well does it matter?". But later when your loved one arrives home to announce his/her job is finished, look beyond the likes of Nestl Rowntree and the other manufacturers for the reason why.

The multiples will still be price cutting one another but definitely not out of their higher-than-ever profits. The money will have been extracted from the likes of Nestl Rowntree, forced to make staff reductions in order to meet the financial demands of these multiple juggernauts.

Thank goodness for farmers' markets.

John Culf,

Main Street,

Breighton,

Selby.

Updated: 10:14 Thursday, February 02, 2006