Tesco is one of the worlds leading international retailers. Since the company first the trading name of Tesco, in the mid 1920s, the group has expanded into different formats, different markets and different sectors. The UKs leading retailer Tesco was floated on the stock exchange in 1947 and in 1995 took over rival Sainsburys position as the UK number one. The principal activity of the group is food retailing, with over 2,000 stores worldwide. Tesco has a long term strategy for growth, based on four key parts: growth in the Core UK business, to expand by growing internationally, to be as strong in non-food as in food and to follow customers into new retailing services. The company launched a home shopping service in 2000, allowing customers to order their shopping online. Tesco is now expanding its convenience stores and overseas into areas such as Taiwan, Malaysia, Poland, the US and Ireland.

Upper graph = 12 month share price with 6 month moving average
Lower graph = 12 month volume (red line = volume average).

and how will they plug the massive black hole in their pension fund?

And, and, and ? And all the time the competitors are pulling away. Looks like the pension fund deficit will have to be addressed in the future years, if Tesco makes any turn round progress. One thing for sure is the future Tesco is not going to be anything like the Tesco today. Still a very tall order .

exactly so ..... worth shorting perhaps

In the short time perhaps. The city are going to be looking for signs that the business is being steered in the right direction, when Tesco announces its plans. SP may yoyo.
Looks like it has further to fall. Clarke and Leahy dumping a large proportion of their holdings perhaps tells enough. Interesting to see weather Tesco will drip feed the market or come right out with its plans.

Problem is the crowd, too obvious. The market being the market will expect shorts to pile in. The algos may have different ideas or am I just becoming a wee bit cynical?

The accounts also need looking into. As said before there is to much left off the balance sheet. I have written before about the loans (bonds) in billions on the property side, made to pay the hefty dividends in the past. Good to see a true up to date value on Tesco property assets. As there are calls this is way over stated. One good thing to say is, as store building has all but ceased, there is a huge land bank that can be sold off. All going to take time.

Your right Chris.

Sharecast - Tesco is testing a discount format in its One Stop chain, indicating the group could be considering new ways to combat Aldi and Lidl, the Sunday Times said. Three One Stop branches have been trading as discounters with low prices and limited ranges for the past seven weeks. The trial is the idea of One Stop's boss Tony Reed and is not monitored by Tesco's board.

I certainly would not buy and lease back their stores , praying they are going to be able to lease for the 25yr period etc. Tesco do not even know their destination. They are to late in post 1332.

Tesco launches fresh discounting drive to combat rise of Lidl and Aldi as share of the market falls to 29% this year and accounting scandal takes its toll



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/markets/article-2889231/Tesco-launches-fresh-discounting-drive-combat-rise-Lidl-Aldi-share-market-falls-29-year-accounting-scandal-takes-toll.html

Trading statement 08 Jan 15 Tesco PLC [TSCO]

Tesco may have to find £300m a year to plug pensions hole

Retailer facing prospect of having to inject extra cash into employees’ retirement fund every year for next decade

The retailer has sought to correct the funding problems and in its 2013 financial year made an additional injection of £180m, on top of other routine contributions designed to reduce the deficit on the scheme.

The one-off top-up dropped to £4m in 2014. Tesco declined to explain the marked difference between the two figures.



http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/dec/28/tesco-300m-pensions-hole

TalkTalk moves to relieve Tesco of loss-making Blinkbox venture


http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/dec/29/blinkbox-tesco-sale-talktalk-video-streaming-service

My take on what Dave should do or I would if in his seat. :-))

First profit margins must be SLASHED. Tesco are now 6% up on ASDA. In the past there was only a 1% variation. National pricing must be abandoned. Rents in the most expensive areas are up to 6 times the level of the cheapest areas, wages are 20% higher. Despite this, Tesco offers the same product at the same price level. The discounters LOVE it. Many of Tesco's stores are in the wrong areas ie out of town. The old man in the past would not pay out for the no1 first class position and took the second best. Which performed back in the past, but not now with shopping habits changing . Many of Tesco stores (about 50%) are over the 50,000sq ft plus bracket. With shoppers proved now to prefer quick shops . A lot of these larger stores are losing money or could come under pressure with loss of footfall. Crazy to keep loss making stores, going to have to be sold off.
I see they are trying out 3 stores with set ups like Aldi etc. All these are up North and are owned by Tesco but not under the name. Not really a big enough pilot scheme . Could of run the scheme with a lot more stores and South as well.
They have clear problems between the discounters attacking them and the more up market likes of Sainsbury and waitrose. Two different extremes of the market then have to be dealt with. No good Tesco becoming a discounter because the likes of as said Sains etc will carry on nibbling away. Tesco has got to become not a discounter but a great value alternative. Its going to be the cheapest option as the whole set up is wrong to join the discounters. As said before the announcement in the next few days wants to be open and clear to where Tesco can carve out a niche position in the grocery business. Tesco needs also to get its trust back with the public, difficult but possible. Clearly now Tesco are well down the road without achieving much of a turn around under the last exited board members and Dave has got to come up trumps very soon, otherwise he will join them.

Grocery shopping is a peculiar subject to analyse and I don't think you can put your finger on just one thing, like say 'price'.

And it isn't going to be the sole thing which is going to win customers' business.

As I shop sometimes in Waitrose, I just cannot see some of their punters ever wanting to 'lower their obvious snobby standards' and join the ranks of the masses, who shop purely to save money at Aldi. And, at Waitrose, you do get a free cappucino to sip from a paper cup whilst you are doing your shopping.

I do like 'self scanning' and this is now offered at my local Tesco as well as Waitrose.

I also like 'Free Parking'. Other than the Tesco and M&S in the middle of town, they all of them have this.

Overall, my favourite is actually my local big Tesco, where I have noted a happier more caring atmosphere amongst the staff, an upgrade to its 'physicality' and lots of 'buzz'.

When mr average is trying to save for a pension and heat the house and pay bills, I would think price ranks very high on the agenda. The type of class/quality of shoppers here in Bishops Stortford at the Aldi store in town are from working class to very well off. There are many Big Bmw's/Mercs parked in the car park. Even the very well off seem to have principles to being ripped off.

IMO...the big main supermarkets have lost the initiative and the understanding of how to win customers back into their stores - away from LIDL / ALDI. They simply 'DON'T Get it' and think that by reducing the 'quantity of product' sold, so that they can match the price of discounters, that this will draw punters back.

However Joe Punter is far more savvy than Supermarket management teams believe, as families now match '£ / £' and 'kg / kg', along with comparable quality of the grocery product they are selling. People are getting wise to the 2-4-1 rip off scam.

The quicker main stream supermarkets reevaluate their offerings vs LIDL / ALDI profiles, the quicker confidence & trust will return families to main supermarkets.

IMO,

HAb

The size of a typical Aldi store is inadequate. When the store gets busy, the staff get hammered to hell with a massive and impossibly high work load. There isn't room on the shelves for the stock and there isn't room on the floor for the full and empty boxes or the pallets or even the staff and the pallet carriers.

Sometimes it is a truly horrible shopping experience.

The Aldi shopping experience can be quite easy to beat.

Locally to me and IMHO:

Tesco willl succeed.
Morrisons will fail.
Sainsbury's haven't much of a clue.
Waitrose are doing OK.
Aldi are going to peak.
I'm confused about Lidl: e.g., Their wine brochure is a phenominally brilliant production - but it is impossible to find the stuff on their shelves because of poor shelf displays. The same shelf problem goes for Sainsbury's.

Aldi has come under fire from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after Tesco complained that its 'Swap & Save' price comparisons were incorrect.
In the television and print adverts, shoppers spoke about going to Aldi instead of their usual supermarket, with one saying: “We've saved so much on out weekly shop”. The ASA agreed that Aldi offered savings, but it banned the ads on the basis they exaggerated how many people had taken part in the swap.
Aldi said Swap & Save diverged from traditional comparative advertising because it examined overall shopping costs at a single store over an extended period of time, rather than the prices of individual products or a standardised basket of shopping.
“We told Aldi Stores Ltd to ensure that in future the basis for comparisons was made clear and did not mislead, and that their comparisons were verifiable,” the ASA said.
Aldi's joint managing director of corporate buying, Giles Hurley, said: “It is important to be clear that the ASA has endorsed the validity of the Swap & Save campaign.
“We recognise that the decision to uphold competitor representations was technical in its nature and, because of this, we will respect the finding and have addressed the issues that it raised.”

Tesco head of remuneration committee to step down

Overhaul of supermarket’s board continues with replacement of Stuart Chambers, but he will remain on the board

The Guardian, Wednesday 31 December 2014 18.08 GMT

Tesco's board is undergoing upheaval in the wake of the discovery of a £263m profits black hole. Photograph: Felix Clay for the Guardian


The head of Tesco’s remuneration committee is to step down from the role in the latest overhaul of the supermarket’s board of directors.

Stuart Chambers, the former chief executive of glassmaker Pilkington who has sat on Tesco’s board since 2010, will be succeeded as chair of the committee by fellow non-executive Deanna Oppenheimer on 1 January but will remain on the board.

Tesco’s board is undergoing upheaval in the wake of the appointment of chief executive Dave Lewis and the discovery of a £263m profits black hole, a matter now being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office.

A replacement is being sought for Sir Richard Broadbent, the chairman, while audit committee chairman Ken Hanna and senior independent director Patrick Cescau are also expected to step down next year.

Meanwhile, Richard Cousins, the head of giant catering group Compass, and Mikael Ohlsson, a former boss of Ikea, have recently joined the retailer.