Tesco is paying the price of success. Twenty years ago it was still trying to shrug off its “pile it high, sell it cheap” heritage and the only people who went to its annual shareholder meeting were . . . shareholders.

Now it is one of Britain’s biggest and most successful companies and the country’s undisputed leader in food retailing.

That has made its annual meetings a magnet for a bewildering array of lobby groups seeking a platform for their causes and Sir Terry Leahy, its chief executive, must field questions on everything from union rights to turtle rights.

The attraction of targeting Tesco is not merely that the TV cameras will be on hand. Tesco is proud to be seen as an industry leader whose changes of policy will be followed frequently by other companies.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has proved to be as adept at generating publicity as he is at raising pigs. Thanks partly to Tesco’s rather high-handed response to his campaign, he managed to whip up a tasty dish for the media that helped him to gain a very respectable 10 per cent backing from Tesco shareholders.

Some Tesco executives point out that, of course, the publicity will do no harm to the viewing figures for Fearnley-Whittingstall’s new series of River Cottage on Channel 4.

Tesco argues that it merely follows what customers want and if they want more expensive chickens that live happier lives it will provide them.

This is somewhat disingenuous. People want dirt-cheap T-shirts until they find out about the dirt-poor conditions they are made in.

Shoppers know more now about the conditions in which Tesco’s chickens live. If they decide to switch their chicken-buying to Waitrose instead, Tesco will quickly get the message. But with household budgets so tight, Fearnley-Whittingstall may find it harder to get people to vote with their wallets.

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