when referring to company names...

[Unregistered]

when referring to company names (a company usually being made up of more tha one person) is it right to treat them as singular or pulral? For example: "Harrods are pleased to announce..." Harrods is pleased to announce..." "Tesco are delighted to say..." "Tesco is delighted to say..." I normally refer to them all as plurals as I feel it reads a lot better, but what is right?

 

[Anglika]

In neither case is it technically plural. It is possessive but has lost the apostrophe.

Harrod's
Tesco's
John Lewis's
Waitrose's

and so on.

 

[marilyn2]

Sorry, I think you have misunderstood the question. If I was saying: Tesco's new range, or Harrods' new collection, then I think the apostrophe placement is correct but, in the examples I gave previously, an apostrophe would not work...

 

[Anglika]

I did not misunderstand.

The companies are Harrod's [named after its founder Mr Harrod]; Selfridge's [named after its founder Mr Selfridge].

The apostrophe has been lost, so Harrods and Selfridges is how the companies concerned are now called and a singular verb is used. In a press release, both these will be Harrods is going to... / Selfridges has taken the ...

In the case of Tesco or Asda, I would expectTesco will be .... / Asda is going to ....; i.e without s and a singular verb.
If you have any problems or doubts, the first place to check is the company's own website, and follow what is done there.