Blog: Tesco needs to bring sparkle back to the UK

Tesco boss Phil Clarke was on good form yesterday, despite unveiling the biggest fall in profits for nearly 20 years. And while the numbers in themselves are horrible, what Clarke is trying to do is set the business on a path towards its next big growth trajectory.

To do that with a company as huge as Tesco takes bold decisions. And he certainly delivered that with the confirmation of a US exit - taking a £1.2bn hit - and the UK property write-down of over £800m, which cemented the end of the space race.

Clarke believes that the US resources can be better invested elsewhere, and that in the UK the race is now not about physical space it is about digital space.

While this is the right strategy, the City will now be looking for Tesco’s UK operation - the engine room - to get motoring again. And that piles huge pressure on Clarke’s new UK managing director Chris Bush.

Speaking to him yesterday, he is more than up for the challenge. Having worked alongside Clarke for 9 years in the international arm, he seems to have a good relationship with his boss, and have been afforded the freedom to get on with the job.

And the task is a big one. While they’ve made good progress - they came out on top at Christmas - they still need to get the public to love them again. Bush told Retail Week this week that he wants to make Tesco loved again, and that means making the grocer chosen, rather than just used.

Investments in food, service, environment and price will go some way towards this, but Bush will still have to bring the sparkle back to the UK. Not an easy task, but one he is more than capable of.