2013 horse meat scandal King, which has more than 500 fast food outlets in Ireland and the UK, dropped Silvercrest as a supplier, using suppliers in Germany and Italy instead, after horse meat was found in their supply chain. Waitrose removed beef meatballs from sale when it found that they contained pork. The meatballs were manufactured by an ABP factory in Glasgow. Waitrose, part of John Lewis, said it would be creating a new facility to supply its own beef products. Tesco, the Co-operative Group and Aldi also cancelled contracts with ABP Food Group because of the adulteration. Food wholesaler Makro, supplier to the
Criticism of Tesco but Tesco backed down. Tesco has been subject to several claims of apparently out-of-date food being 'back-labelled' to appear still to be within date, poor café hygiene and a staff member contracting legionnaires' disease in the Wrexham store. Tesco denied squeezing its suppliers in December 2013 after retail analyst Cantor Fitzgerald accused Tesco of practices that risked breaching the Groceries Supply Code of Practice and criticized its trading relationships. Similar accusation were also made in April 2005 despite its record £2 billion profit. In May 2004, Tesco announced it was reducing sick pay in an attempt to reduce levels of