Dave Lewis - a Brand New Approach to Tesco?

Today’s news of Philip Clarke’s replacement by a 28-year Unilever veteran, coupled with a need for fundamental change means that Dave Lewis will bring branding, global and supplier insight to the mix…

• With no retailer/Tesco baggage, he can be more decisive in eliminating sacred cows that have failed to deliver in terms of assets, process, initiatives and job functions
• As an FMCG marketer, he will understand that a new brand loses money on the initial purchase, makes a little on the second and begins to generate real profit when the consumer returns spontaneously having received more than was expected, and even tells a friend… The only issue for suppliers is that the brand is now Tesco, so private label and the Tesco shopping experience will now receive the state-of-art brand-marketing treatment it may have lacked in the past…
• His big-company global experience should be an asset in coordinating local, regional and global strategies
• The 28 years’ experience as a supplier has to mean a raising of the bar in terms of depth of supplier-Tesco relationships, with each side bringing more mutual insight and fact-based financial rationale to the negotiating table....

But above all, Dave Lewis will have 12 months to demonstrate sustainable improvement in Return On Capital Employed - and thereby share price - in the full knowledge that suppler-collaboration can help…

Over to you, in anticipation…