Tag: Philip Clarke

Tesco stays in the doldrums

Posted on April 16, 2014 by - News

tescoSqueezed between Aldi and Lidl at the low end and Waitrose and Marks & Sparks at the high end, mega-grocer Tesco delivered annual profits of £3.3 billion but that’s a fall of six percent  compared to the previous year.

It’s businesses abroad also showed declines while Philip Clarke, the Tesco CEO, maintained in a BBC radio interview this morning that he would turn the business round in three years. Other giant grocery chains, including Morrisons, Asda and Sainsbury’s are all being dented by the Aldis and Lidls of this world.

Part of his plans are to revamp the 600 plus Tesco stores in the UK and to concentrate more on its online sales.

Online sales grew 11 percent, and Clarke said this morning that Tesco is ready to take advantage of smartphone and tablet trends.

Tesco feels the economic squeeze

Posted on December 4, 2013 by - News

Philip Clarke, TescoThe politicians might say that things are getting better but a multinational corporation seems to have its finger on the pulse of the UK economy and it’s not happy.

Tesco released its interim management statement for its third quarter and the outlook is far from rosy.

According to Philip Clarke, the Tesco CEO, like for like sales fell by 1.5 percent, mostly due to a weaker grocery market.

He said: “Continuing pressures on UK household finances have made the grocery market more challenging for everyone since the summer and our third quarter performance reflects this.”

He said its decision to open fewer stores is holding back Tesco’s performance “in the short term”.

Clarke said that “consumers are still managing the effects of an unprecedented period of declining real incomes and a higher cost of living. The average spending power of a typical UK household is around 10 percent below its 2007 peak in real terms”.

Things are not going particularly swimmingly in its foreign markets, Tesco said.

Tesco profits dented

Posted on October 2, 2013 by - News

Tesco HudlMegagrocer Tesco said it saw a 23.5 percent slump in its profits for the first half of its financial year to the end of August.

Its non-UK businesses saw bigger profit drops – European profits fell by over two thirds it said.

Profit margins fell from 5.4 percent to 4.9 percent but the sheer size of Tesco saw a £1.6 billion profit.

Philip Clarke, Tesco’s CEO, claimed that performance in the UK was stronger in the half, especially in its online food sales business.

He said: “The challenging retail environment in Europe has continued to affect the performance and profitability of our business there.”

Tesco recently released its low price Hudl tablet (pictured).

Tesco chucks cash at digital services

Posted on March 25, 2013 by - News

tescoTesco is continuing in its quest to become the all singing all dancing supermarket giant.

The company has now said it will be launching a new UK digital music and book service, while, like many companies, is moving to improve its presence in China, launching its Clubcard into the country.

Head honcho Philip Clarke said that the supermarket would be throwing $750 million at the technology market  this year, a mark up three times more than in 2010, in a bid to go head to head with the likes of Amazon and Play.com.

He said the company would be embracing digital retailing, eventually offering apps to help customers shop easier as well as confirming that it would launch blinkboxmusic and blinkboxbooks over the coming months.

It’s taking the moves seriously – hiring one of Facebook’s most senior European executives, Gavin Sathianathan, to lead the operation.

Mark Bennett, a former EMI and Warner Music executive, has been tasked with heading up blinkboxmusic.

This is one of many paths the company has been taking in its quest to become supermarket king.

Earlier this month it was reportedly in talks to buy family food chain Giraffe as well as entering into the price match war with its rivals.