Businessman Rupert James shares his views on the problems at Tesco
Jack Cohen founded Tesco; his wife was called Tessa Cohen. That is where the name comes from. It grew far too quickly and it has become too big. Now this behemoth is unsurprisingly reaping what it has sown.
Tesco destroyed village shops, they destroyed local butchers, fishmongers and grocers and I won’t even mention the thousands of farmers who’ve royally been screwed by them. Here is a business that has been arrogantly run and arrogance in business is unwise. In the end, arrogance usually bites you in the arse and Tesco is now experiencing just that.
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Tesco is floating around representing no particular demographic. People go to M&S, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s and people also go to Aldi and Lidl because they know what each of them represents. Tesco, though, is a colossus with clay feet and it will go on losing market share until it decides what it stands for. It is no wonder that this company has got “accounting problems”: It can thank its very own arrogance.
Rupert James is a British businessman. Follow him on Twitter at @Rupsiabout.
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Readers have their say
8 comments
I won’t be boycotting Tesco myself because of their arrogance. They have some great deals on things like alcohol but I never buy vegetables or meat there. It is of shockingly bad quality compared to M&S and Waitrose and not really that much cheaper.
A good article.
Why do these retailers choose ex bankers as chairmen….Robert Swannell(Schroders)…M&S and one time HMV…both retail dogs; Richard Broadbent(Schroders) Tesco; Marcus Agius(Lazard) Barclays( a sort of retailer)
The lesson is that appointing a banker as chairman is a clear sell signal
Power corrupts; near to absolute power must nearly corrupt absolutely…….
Tesco, as several commentators have noted, has no one on the board with Domain Knowledge, i.e. no one has any experience within the retail sector. At least one of the board is from a country in which Tesco has no stores at all! Unless there are people at board level with domain experience (as opposed to ex or current bankers/wankers), the kind of problems which have arisen are almost bound to occur.
As to the quality of their produce: my son and daught-in-law, formerly regular Tesco customers, have given up getting their fruit and vegetables there because the quality is so low. They are clearly not alone in feeling that the Tesco value offer isn’t such good value after all. (Result: they now buy more stuff at Waitrose!) Once formerly loyal customers defect, any business is in trouble.
I shop in Tesco and I love it. Why are you all attacking this company? Matthew Steeples: I am surprised you allowed someone to write something so anti-capitalist on your pages.
I did not write an anti capitalist article. I just wrote about a now floundering business. Whose management is somewhat lacking. In business, if you throw your weight around and continuely bulldoze your way forward. You will eventually hit a brick wall, and start going backwards. Which is precisley what has happened….R.J.
Tracey
Are you all there?
Tesco mis-stated its profit by a quarter of a billion pounds. In doing so they deceitfully and dishonestly inflated their share price.
It is entirely appropriate that they are the subject of censure. What this has to do with being anti capitalistic confuses me.
Tracey….
Firms that are forced to cheat and lie to inflate their shares by two billion ( yes BILLION ! ) pounds put themselves into intensive care and A&E…………… nice as they appear to be……….