Andy Clarke Asda

Clarke: Scottish independence would make trade 'more complex'

Asda CEO Andy Clarke has warned shoppers that prices will rise in Scotland if it becomes an independent country.

In a blunt warning to customers, the head of Britain's second-largest retailer said trading across a new border would make business more 'complex', and push up costs.

The announcement comes after the likes of John Lewis and B&Q warned that their prices would rise in an independent Scotland.

Despite Clarke telling Mail Online that Asda 'would have to reflect our cost to operate in Scotland', Scotland's first minister Alex Salmond has claimed such warnings from large firms have been 'recycled', and are not new.

Clarke said: 'If we were no longer to operate in one state with one market and, broadly, one set of rules, our business model would inevitably become more complex. We would have to reflect our cost to operate [there].

'This is not an argument for or against independence - it is simply an honest recognition of the costs that change could bring.For us the customer is always right and this important decision is in their hands.'

Former Sainsbury's CEO Justin King, meanwhile, told BBC News that Scottish independence would cause supermarket prices to rise, would lead to retailers putting investment on hold, and could harm Scottish food producers.

And the chief executive of Morrisons, Dalton Philips, told the Financial Times: 'If the regulatory environment was to increase the burden of the cost structure on business, that would potentially have to be passed through to consumer pricing, because why should the English and Welsh consumer subsidise this increased cost of doing business in Scotland?'