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).

The footfall to Aldi is causing a loss of profit to Tesco so this latter is the direct problem which Tesco needs to address.

Tesco management do not need to concern themselves with decreasing (or increasing) the footfall to Aldi (which is best thought of as being a symptomatic problem to Tesco).

Correctly, they are taking actions to increase their own profitabilty and taking other actions to drive the public to profitable Tesco stores. Ruthlessly, they are discontinuing stores which are not profitable and that management consider cannot be turned round to become profitable (or adequately profitable).

All efforts are being directed towards making the good stores even better. Importantly, they want the public to enjoy shopping at Tesco - and my wife and I actually do now. Our local Tesco has absolutely brilliant vibes now and is getting better and better by the day.

By way of comparison, our local Morrisons is rapidly going down the tubes. My respect for 'what and how' Morrisons are performing is going down the tubes with them and at a slightly faster rate.

I think a lot more stores in time will be shutting as the discounters open stores on their patch. As said before Tesco and the likes cannot keep the price cuts going indefinitely as their overheads are so much higher. Profits are going to come under massive strain. Cause they need to concern themselves with increasing or decreasing footfall, very concerning on the decreasing footfall. On the now reduced profit Tesco will be making per store due to huge discounting they are going to count on every extra pair of feet gained and will be very worried at the loss of customers, as it will not take much of a loss to run the store into a loss profit wise. We have seen the future profits predicted for UK operations (not good) . Tesco is still running on a massive gamble and don't have years to try out different strategies if the plan so far fails.

Ex-Dixons boss ‘first in line’ for Tesco chairman after Ian Cheshire exits race

John Allan could replace Richard Broadbent but former B&Q chief executive’s withdrawal is likely to be a blow to supermarket group



http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jan/30/john-allan-dixons-tipped-tesco-chairman-ian-cheshire-exit

Tesco cuts range by 30% to simplify shopping

By reducing number of products from 90,000, supermarket will be able to cut prices and improve availability on its shelves


http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jan/30/tesco-cuts-range-products

This range cutting idea by Tesco is not a very good one for their customers. I think it is a bit crude and short sighted of them. It makes their service to customers so very easy to be beaten too.

It means to us customers, that most everytime you visit and have something on your shopping list which happens to be slightly rare, then you are going to be disappointed. Chances are, that they won't have it.

Such continual disappointment is going to drive customers away to shop somewhere else. That somewhere else being a supermarket which DOES carry a really good range of produce.

I really do think the policy is pathetic - and ANTI the customer.

ExecLine, they are in such serious trouble they have no choice .The British public shopping habits have changed vastly. They had the choice of trying to compete with the discounters (which is the chosen route ) or set up something more niche between waitrose and the current supermarkets. As said in the above they have far more lines than sains or the likes, as they did not follow Tesco in the over supply of suppliers. Now unless you fill the empty space with say a million loo rolls, Tesco are going to have vast empty floor space. At the end of the day Tesco has got to be a profitable business for their own survival and for investors. I take it they have done research and the new lay out will not put off customers. If it does Aldi and the likes will be rubbing their hands together.

Market buzz -

Retail veteran John Allan is the favourite to be the next chairman of Tesco, the Sunday Times reported. Allan, deputy chairman at Dixons Carphone, is Tesco's top choice after Ian Cheshire, the former Kingfisher boss, said he would prefer another chief executive job. Some of Tesco's big shareholders are concerned that Allan lacks recent experience - his most recent involvement in selling groceries was at Fine Fare from 1977 to 1985. Tesco has also considered appointing Archie Norman, the ITV Chairman who revived Asda in the 1990s.

(Reuters) - British retailer Tesco (TSCO.L) has cleared payouts for former chief executive Phil Clarke and ex-finance chief Laurie McIlwee after its legal team advised there was no basis for continuing to withhold the payments.

Tesco said on Tuesday it had agreed to pay Clarke almost 1.22 million pounds ($1.83 million) and McIlwee 970,880 pounds under their separation agreements.

Clarke's 40-year Tesco career, three and a half as CEO, ended when he was sacked last July. McIlwee, chief financial officer from 2009, resigned in April last year.

The payments had been suspended due to an investigation into Tesco's accounting practices in the wake of the supermarket’s 263-million-pound profit overstatement.

Tesco said it was contractually committed to make the payments unless it could legally establish a case of gross misconduct.

"The company has taken legal advice and has concluded that it does not have the basis for continuing to withhold the payments," it said.

"Accordingly, the board considers that defending costly claims for the payments would not be in the company’s best interests."

Britain's Serious Fraud Office is continuing to investigate the accounting issue which relates to Tesco's booking of commercial income from suppliers.

Tesco said if new information came to light which changed its current assessment it would pursue recovery of the payments, together with damages.

Last year Britain's biggest supermarket issued four profit warnings, sending its shares to a 14-year low.

Dave Lewis, who succeeded Clarke as CEO, is fighting back with a plan to slash costs and sell assets to fund lower prices and mend the firm's finances.

Asda boss Andy Clarke says Tesco is having ‘heart surgery’

Outlining plans to win market share from rival Tesco, Clarke says his chain is using price cuts rather than vouchers


http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/05/asda-boss-andy-clarke-tesco-heart-surgery

Tesco returns to sales growth - Kantar

(Reuters) - Britain's biggest supermarket Tesco (TSCO.L) returned to sales growth for the first time since January 2014, industry data showed on Tuesday, indicating measures introduced by new boss Dave Lewis are having a positive impact.

Market researcher Kantar Worldpanel said Tesco's sales rose 0.3 percent year-on-year over the 12 weeks to Feb. 1, outperforming its so called big four rivals, Asda (WMT.N), Sainsbury's (SBRY.L) and Morrisons (MRW.L), who saw declines of 1.7 percent, 1.0 percent and 0.4 percent respectively.

Shares in Tesco jumped on the news, up 2.5 percent to 239.25 pence at 0957 GMT.

Richard Buxton: 'Why I've bought Tesco shares'

Appointment of Chairman

RNS

RNS Number : 1692F
Tesco PLC
17 February 2015

News release…
Tuesday 17th February 2015

TESCO PLC: APPOINTMENT OF JOHN ALLAN AS CHAIRMAN

Following Richard Broadbent's decision to step down as Chairman, Tesco today announces that John Allan will join the Board and be appointed Chairman on 1 March 2015. Richard Broadbent will step down from the Board on the same date.

Richard Broadbent, Chairman, said:

"I am delighted that John has agreed to join us and take on the role of Chairman of the Board. I am sure that his wide expertise, his experience and his personal qualities will contribute greatly to the future of the Group."

Patrick Cescau, Senior Independent Director, said:

"Following a deep and thorough process run by a committee of independent non-executive directors, the Board unanimously agreed that John Allan was the right candidate to chair Tesco at this important time. On behalf of the Board I would like to thank Richard for his work as Chairman. He has served the business with unflinching commitment through a period of unprecedented change, and put in place a new senior leadership team for the next stage of Tesco's development."

John Allan said:

"I'm very pleased to be taking on this role at such a critical moment for the business and look forward to working with the new executive team and the Board."

Contact:

Investors: Chris Griffith 01992 644 800
Media: Tom Hoskin 01992 644 645
Brunswick 0207 404 5959

Biographical note:

John Allan's early career was with Lever Bros and Bristol-Myers in a variety of marketing roles. He then spent 8 years at Fine Fare, a subsidiary of ABF where he was the Retail Director for Marketing, Buying and Retail Operations. He was a Divisional CEO at BET for 9 years. He became CEO of Ocean Group plc in 1994 and then of Exel when Ocean Group merged with NFC in 2000 to become Exel plc, the global leader in Logistics, operating in 60 countries and ultimately with 115,000 employees. Exel was acquired by Deutsche Post in 2005 for a share price 5 times that of 1994, and John joined the board of Deutsche Post to manage the integration, and subsequently the new Logistics Division with 150,000 employees and a turnover of over 27 bn Euros. In 2007 he was invited to become CFO of Deutsche Post - a post he held until his retirement and return to the UK in 2009.

John became Chairman of Dixons Retail in Sept 2009. Dixons conducted a comprehensive turnaround programme during which the share price more than quadrupled, culminating in a friendly merger of equals with Carphone Warehouse in August 2014 to form Dixons Carphone. He is currently a Deputy Chairman and SID of the new company, which was the best performer in the FTSE 100 in 2014. He is also Chairman of Barratt Developments and Chairman of Worldpay.

Notes:

Following his appointment to the Tesco Board, John Allan will step down from the Boards of Dixons Carphone and Royal Mail. He will be resigning with immediate effect from his role as a senior advisor to Alix Partners and he will step down as Chair of the DHL UK Foundation as soon as a successor is found, which is anticipated to be within three months. He is expected to continue in his other roles as Chairman of Barratt Developments and WorldPay.

John Allan will be paid a fee of £650,000 per annum, fixed for three years, inclusive of all Board fees, in respect of his role as Chairman of Tesco PLC.

John was a non-executive director of National Grid plc and 3i plc within the last five years.

There are no additional matters that would require disclosure under LR 9.6.13 R (1) to (6) in relation to this appointment.

This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

STRPKODDOBKDDBD

Chairmen do not come any better than John Allan and so the city are surely going to absolutely love this exceptional chap being appointed to head up the board.

I would think it might hopefully be a case of "stand by for a healthy 5% rise on Wednesday morning as buyers and fund managers everywhere show their support for the appointment."

In fact, with such a strong indication that Tesco might now be turning the corner, even Warren Buffet might re-invest in the shares and take another strong position, don'tchafink?

Good appointment Exec.

The city are unmoved.

As I type, TSCO are up just 0.68% or £0.016

LATEST BROKER VIEWS

Date Broker New target Recomm.
18 Feb Cantor... N/A Under Review
17 Feb Deutsche Bank 275.00 Buy
11 Feb Deutsche Bank N/A Hold
10 Feb Shore Capital N/A Hold
4 Feb Shore Capital N/A Hold
3 Feb Shore Capital N/A Hold
2 Feb Jefferies... 210.00 Hold
28 Jan Shore Capital N/A Hold
27 Jan Societe... 235.00 Hold
26 Jan JP Morgan... N/A Underweight
Broker Recommendations for Tesco

New Tesco chairman gets mixed reaction from City
Tesco shares rise after appointment of John Allan, but analysts question decision to appoint Barratt Developments chairman



By Graham Ruddick12:48PM GMT 18 Feb 2015Comments1 Comment
The City has given a mixed reaction to Tesco's appointment of John Allan as chairman, questioning whether he has the heavyweight experience to lead Britain's biggest retailer.
Mr Allan is a City grandee who has served on the board of a string of public companies, but his retail experience is limited to eight years at former supermarket chain Fine Fare in the 1970s and 80s and five years as chairman of Dixons Retail.
Shares in Tesco rose 1.07, or 0.44pc, to 245.43p, but analysts said they would have preferred Tesco to choose Archie Norman, the former Asda boss and chairman of ITV.
Clive Black, analyst at Shore Capital, said the prospect of Mr Norman working with Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis would have been a "dream ticket". Mike Dennis, analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, added: "We would have preferred Archie Norman over the 66-year-old John Allan, as Allan is seen as more of a logistics expert rather than a food retailer, given his Fine Fare days were 35 years ago."
Mr Dennis also questioned the £625,000 salary that Tesco will pay Mr Allan, adding: "Tesco, despite the halving of its market value and shrinking of its group trading profit to less than £1.4bn still seems willing to pay substantial fees, £56k per month for senior executives.

"I am not so sure that Tesco has lowered it sights or that investors have understood that this is a not typical turnaround story as Tesco is already one of the most efficient food retailers in the world, but mis-managed the timing of its supplier funding to offset its falling brand equity, falling sales densities, loss of pricing leadership and poor return on International investments.
"All these factors can be stabilised, but probably do not require a major operational investment strategy more a cost-cutting exercise and divestment of non-performing assets, in our view. The question now is whether the 'clean' Tesco UK operations actually make double digit cash returns or can that only be achieved after a substantial asset write down."
Mr Allan will join Tesco on March 1 and replace Sir Richard Broadbent, who announced he would step down after Tesco uncovered a £263m accounting scandal last September.
Mr Black said Mr Allan has a "distinguished past". He added: "The turnaround in the performance and prospects of Dixons has been a remarkable achievement by its collective management, culminating in a well-regarded merger. Mr. Allan's turnaround experience may be highly valuable to Tesco, and whilst not necessarily the centre of his time, he may have beneficial insights into logistics progress too."
However, he said: ‎"Mr Allan's appointment may raise an eyebrow or two with respect to who else was not appointed to the role of Chairman. Sir Ian Cheshire of Kingfisher fame seemingly ruled himself out of contention some weeks ago, but recent financial press speculation has centred on the possibility of Archie Norman taking up the role of Tesco chairman.
"Mr Norman needs no introduction to any seasoned supermarket watcher following his 'duet' with Allan Leighton in the 1990s. We cannot second guess whether Mr Norman was in serious contention or not and frankly now it does not matter. However, from our perspective we could foresee a 'dream-ticket' scenario of Messrs Norman and Lewis working together, one that we sense the market would have warmly welcomed, but this is not to be."
Nicla di Palma at brokers Brewin Dolphin said: "We will give due consideration to this appointment. It is slightly disappointing that both the CEO and chairman do not have recent food retail experience."

And that’s probably because he’s no Archie Norman. :-))

Looking like make your mind up time here. But who knows, had a good run. Next resistance 280p. If it drops below 200DMA good bet profit taking will accelerate.

Balance sheet wise Lewis knows there are still issues to be addressed. ‘The financing is fine. The issue for the group is the amount of debt.’ He notes that the balance sheet shows £8billion, which would be sustainable. If you add on the costs of capitalised long leases and the pension deficit ‘its £22billion and that is a figure we have to start thinking about’.


The Mail, CITY-INTERVIEW-Tesco-boss-Dave-Lewis-vows-restore-fortunes-Britain-s-biggest-grocer