Tesco Profit Error: New Finance Boss Rushed In

Eight Headaches For Supermarket Giant Tesco

Updated: 6:02pm UK, Monday 22 September 2014

A decade ago Tesco was an investor's delight, with a share price shooting up more than 70% between 2004 and 2007, and healthy dividend payments. So what went wrong?

PROFIT WARNINGS

With 14 years as CEO to his credit, Sir Terry Leahy stepped down in 2011 after overseeing a leap in pre-tax profit from £750m in 1997 to £3.4bn in 2010. Yet less than a year into the job as new CEO, Philip Clarke issued the first profit warning in two decades as a result of a poor 2011 Christmas trading period.

CHANGING TASTES

Tesco was being squeezed by changing consumer tastes, a dislike of its cavernous and cold stores, and complaints about frosty customer service. It unveiled a £1bn revamp plan in April 2012.

AMERICAN ADVENTURE

In April 2013 it reported its first fall in annual profit for 19 years, with a post-tax profit plunging 95% to £120m, after suffering a £1.2bn charge to exit its struggling Fresh & Easy American venture.

PROPERTY BUST

It also suffered a write-down of £804m for land bought at the height of the property boom, earmarked for development but subsequently put on hold.

MEAT SCANDAL

Last year, Tesco was caught up in the biggest food fraud of the century - with some of its beef burgers found to contain up to 29% horsemeat.

CLEVER COMPETITION

German discounters continue to nibble away at Tesco's customer base at one end, while M&S and Waitrose take share from consumers willing to pay more for premium products.

BIG NOT NIMBLE

Despite the woes Tesco remains the country's biggest retailer and still dwarfs its competition. Tesco is around the same size as Sainsbury's and Morrisons combined, and globally employs more than half a million people in 12 countries. But big rarely means nimble. A large number of senior staff have quit the company in recent years and 40-year Tesco veteran Mr Clarke was ousted by the board last July, after dismissing critics of his turnaround plans.

SIDELINES

Tesco wholly-owns a retail research company named dunnhumby, with offshoots including BzzAgent, KSS Retail, and Sociomantic - which sells display adverts on Facebook and mobiles.

This analysis arm crunches data from over 350 million consumers in 28 countries and sells it to corporate giants such as Coca-Cola, Shell and Procter & Gamble. The Tesco empire is huge, with numerous and competing divisions, and as a result does not always see the wood for the trees.

Dunnhumby does not trumpet the Tesco parentage on its website - but maybe it is time Tesco starts looking in-house for an answer to its woes.

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