by business editor Trevor Sturgess

Tesco shoppers in the south east and Kent are missing out on more than £13million because they have not spent their loyalty scheme vouchers.

The supermarket giant today revealed that nationally the missing sum amounts to a staggering £40million.

In a "Missing Millions" campaign, it appealed to Clubcard customers to hunt through their wallets, bookshelves and kitchen drawers to dig out any forgotten vouchers.

It calculates that every year around £40million of vouchers sent to households expire unused. The scheme was launched in 1995 and now has around 15 million customers.

But shoppers in our region have the worst record of "voucher forgetfulness", with a massive £13.4million worth of vouchers remaining unused.

Tesco says these could have been used to cut the cost of shopping, or been worth up to £53.6million if they had been used for Clubcard deals that include day trips, holidays or restaurant meals. Tesco claims they would have paid for 1.9million trips to Madame Tussauds.

Customers on the south coast have been told that their missing millions - £ 2.9million – would have funded 75,000 return trips from Kent to France by Eurotunnel.

Tesco sends Clubcard vouchers to members in February, May, August and November each year and they are valid for two years from date of issue. Each quarterly mailing is usually in the region of £100million and Tesco claims that around 10 per cent is never taken up.

Over the next few weeks, £105million of Clubcard vouchers are to be posted out to more than 13 million customers.

Tesco hopes that publicity generated by its campaign will jog memories and encourage customers to search out lost vouchers lurking in cupboard, drawers or purses.

Carolyn Bradley, Tesco’s UK marketing director, said: "While the vast majority of our Clubcard members make good use of their vouchers there are a minority who unfortunately forget, and this is quite simply money down the drain.

"We know how important it is for customers in the current climate to make the most of their budgets which is why we are launching this nationwide search to hunt for forgotten Clubcard vouchers so that customers don’t miss out."