Dave Lewis admits long road ahead for Tesco recovery April 22, 2015 Tesco boss Dave Lewis admitted yesterday that he faced a larger task than expected turning around the struggling supermarket giant, as it reported the worst results in its 96-year history. Lewis – known as “Drastic Dave” for his radical overhaul of businesses at Unilever and now at Tesco – acknowledged that the task of turning [...]
Historic Tesco loss sparks share price slump: Dave Lewis has to move from “drastic” to “dynamic” April 22, 2015 2007: TESCO’S PEAK MARKET SHARE 31.7% MARKET SHARE MARCH 2015 28.4% Shares in Tesco slumped by five per cent yesterday after the retail giant capped a year of profit warnings, accounting scandals and fraud investigations by posting one of the biggest losses in corporate history. Britain’s biggest supermarket made a statutory pre-tax loss of £6.4bn [...]
Tesco: Here’s what the City and analysts are saying about record annual losses April 22, 2015 As the details of Tesco's losses and its turnaround plans sink in around the City, here's the initial take from analysts, business experts and even the man funding shareholder litigation against Tesco over the profit overstatement last year that triggered it all. Louise Cooper, CooperCity – "Tesco is like Miliband – it has two kitchen [...]
British icon Tesco rebounds but will it ever attain its past glory? – Brand Index April 14, 2015 Are there now real signs of recovery for Tesco? Its battle – not just against its traditional big four rivals but the German discounters too – has a long way to run, but the YouGov BrandIndex points towards areas in which it is succeeding. Tesco’s nadir was reached prior to Christmas, its brand image damaged [...]
Sainsbury’s cuts back on Nectar loyalty rewards April 12, 2015 Sainsbury’s has halved the number of Nectar points its customers can earn, sparking fears that frustrated shoppers will turn to discounters such as Aldi and Lidl instead. The retailer made changes to the loyalty scheme this weekend, meaning members now only earn one point for every £1 spent in-store and online, as opposed to two [...]
Majestic Wine gets Naked truth from new CEO Rowan Gormley April 12, 2015 The new chief executive of Majestic Wine says he will “unleash” the retailer’s entrepreneurial spirit and shake-up its online business following the £70m acquisition of younger rival Naked Wines. Rowan Gormley founded Naked Wines in 2008 after coming up with the idea of using crowdfunding to help forward-fund independent vineyards in return for exclusive wines [...]
Easter “masks” wider problems in supermarket sector as price war continues to take toll on Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury and Morrisons April 10, 2015 Supermarkets experienced their first growth in spend during March – but the early Easter is “masking” the sector's problems, Nielsen claims. Sales rose 0.7 per cent for the four weeks to March 28 against the same period last year. The last time grocers saw an increase in spend was April last year, when Easter distorted [...]
Aldi becomes sixth biggest food retailer but sales growth slows April 8, 2015 ALDI has overtaken Waitrose as the UK’s sixth biggest supermarket, according to figures out yesterday that also cautioned that growth among the discounters was slowing. Aldi’s sales grew by 16.8 per cent in the 12 weeks to 30 March compared with a year earlier, taking its market share to 5.3 per cent, data from Kantar [...]
Aldi knocks Waitrose off its spot as UK’s sixth biggest supermarket April 8, 2015 Aldi has overtaken Waitrose to become the UK's sixth biggest supermarket. The budget supermarket, which has recorded double-digit sales growth for the past four years, now has 5.3 per cent of the country's spend on groceries, according to Kantar Worldpanel. Waitrose is still in growth – in fact just one of three to see [...]
Zero inflation is the new normal: The world can’t evade its debts forever March 31, 2015 Zero inflation is trending. The consumer price index in the UK was at the same level in February as it was a year earlier. The reporting of this figure on the BBC website created some unintended amusement, however. The drop to zero, we were told, was “sharper than many analysts had expected”. And what was [...]