CHESHUT, ENGLAND - Looking to reverse its downward trending market share and profit numbers, Tesco announced that it will be parting ways with long time CEO Philip Clarke. With Dave Lewis, now-former President of Personal Care at Unilever, stepping to the helm, Tesco puts the capstone on a major shakeup of its executive leadership, having replaced its entire Board in just over 3 years.
"Philip Clarke agreed with the board that this is the appropriate moment to hand over to a new leader with fresh perspectives and a new profile...Dave Lewis brings a wealth of international consumer experience and expertise in change management, business strategy, brand management and customer development," wrote Tesco chairman Richard Broadbent.
Clarke agreed that Lewis was the right man for the job, sharing with investors in a press release that "Having taken the business through the huge challenges of the last few years, I think this is the right moment to hand over responsibility and I am delighted that Dave Lewis has agreed to join us...I will do everything in my power to support him in taking the company forward through the next stage of its journey."
Pressured from both sides by discount grocers like Aldi and Lidl and upscale chains like Waitrose, the past several years have been tough ones for Tesco. Since March 2011 when Clarke first took the job of CEO, Tesco's domestic market share has declined 1.3% to 28.9%. According to BBC, like-for-like sales figures over the past month were also down 3.7%, their worst mark in decades.
Natalie Berg, Global Research Director for Planet Retail, told Bloomberg that these declines are as much due to a changing consumer market as executive leadership.
“A change in leadership may bring some much-needed fresh thinking to Tesco, but the structural shifts in the grocery sector cannot be reversed,” she said. “The fundamental issue remains that shoppers are no longer making that big weekly trip to an out-of-town superstore.”
Berg believes that Lewis' first challenge as CEO will be to reestablish Tesco's brand identity.
“It [Tesco] doesn’t stand for value, yet it doesn’t stand for quality, and without a clear proposition we fear that Tesco will continue to lose customers to more relevant and better-defined channels,” she said.
Despite his relative lack of retail experience, Tesco is fortunate that this is one area in which Lewis excels.
“If you look at what Dave Lewis brings, David is absolutely the leader in brand management and brand identity, communication, customer development, customer management,” Broadbent told Bloomberg.
In the wake of the news, Tesco shares rose 2.7 percent to 292.75 pence.
Congratulations on the new position Dave!
