“Tesco might be buying Booker, but the biggest thing they are getting in this deal is Charles Wilson.”
The words of one retail executive, spoken shortly after Tesco’s merger with Booker was unveiled in January 2017, have stuck in my memory ever since.
It was just about the highest praise that could have been bestowed upon Booker’s boss Wilson – Britain’s biggest retailer was paying £3.7bn not primarily for a business, but to gain access to the brilliant retail mind of a man affectionately known in the industry as Two Brains.
But after a glittering career, now is the time for Wilson, in his own words, to “take things a little easier” and retire. He has more than earned that right after a storied and, at times, turbulent career.
Tesco sent shockwaves through the retail world in July 2018 when it revealed Wilson had been diagnosed with throat cancer and would be stepping down from his role as chief executive of its core UK business, just five months after taking on the job.
Widely seen as the heir-apparent to Tesco boss Dave Lewis prior to his diagnosis, Wilson reverted back to his former position running the Booker business – a company that could easily not have even existed today were it not for Wilson’s interventions.
The wholesale group was on its knees prior to Wilson’s arrival as an executive director in 1998. He helped lay some firmer foundations, ultimately leading to its merger with Iceland in 2000, creating the Big Food Group.
But Wilson and then-Booker boss Lord Stuart Rose left just months after the deal’s completion to join Arcadia. The combination was to turn sour and when Wilson returned to Booker in 2005, the Big Food Group now disbanded, the company was once again in dire straits.
“Who knows where M&S might be today if it had managed to keep hold of Wilson and his two brains for a while longer”
Yet, under Wilson’s leadership, Booker was transformed. It listed on the stock exchange, purchased rival Makro’s UK cash-and-carry operations from Metro Group and snapped up the Londis and Budgens convenience chains from Musgrave in a £40m deal. The attraction to Tesco was obvious – Booker offered it a route into the lucrative ‘out-of-home’ food market, increasing the supermarket giant’s power across the supply chain, with distribution to restaurants and c-stores.
In the year to February 29, Booker increased sales 5% to £6bn and racked up cumulative synergies of £207m following the merger – a year ahead of schedule. And even amid the coronavirus crisis, when trade to restaurants was decimated, Booker still managed to grow sales 6.1% in the 13 weeks to May 30.
It is no wonder that Lewis describes Wilson’s turnaround of Booker as “one of the most remarkable business case studies in recent history”. But although his 15 years at Booker will form a central part of Wilson’s legacy, he has given so much more than that to the industry.
Top of his game
A humble, unassuming leader, Wilson has not always played the frontman in his career but has often played the tune that his band of fellow executives have sung.
Lewis has taken centre stage at Tesco, earning plaudits for his turnaround plan, but Wilson offered an invaluable sounding board for Lewis in his first retail chief executive role.
For years, during his first stint at Booker, three years at Arcadia and a 12-month spell at Marks & Spencer, Wilson similarly served as Rose’s right-hand man.
Who knows where M&S might be today if it had managed to keep hold of Wilson and his two brains for a while longer.
As Shore Capital’s Clive Black muses, where would Rose himself have been without Wilson by his side for so much of his career?
And where would Wilson have taken Tesco if cancer had not intervened and he had been allowed to tread the path that had been seemingly laid out for him as Lewis’ successor?
They are questions that will never be answered, but the one thing not up for debate is the standing Wilson will be held in when he retires next February.
His name has been cemented alongside retail’s great leaders – Ken Morrison, Terry Leahy, Archie Norman. That is the legendary company Wilson keeps.
But he isn’t just a great businessman; he is a great man to boot.
“Wilson always had his audience hanging on his every word, such is his unique perspective and gravitas”
In the words of Lewis, Wilson “will always remain a friend to many colleagues” at Tesco and Booker. He will be remembered fondly by the City and the media, too.
He always made time to take our calls, even prior to the Tesco merger when Retail Week might not have registered so strongly on Booker’s radar.
He always made time for journalists and analysts at Tesco’s results briefings, happily engaging in conversation over a coffee and a pastry before and after press conferences. Even in those short discussions, Wilson always had his audience hanging on his every word, such is his unique perspective and gravitas.
Despite his cancer diagnosis, he remained on the Tesco group executive board and has continued to lead the Booker division with the strategic aplomb we have become accustomed to.
That is a measure of the man Wilson is.
Everyone at Retail Week wishes him well in his thoroughly deserved retirement. He bows out where he has always been – at the very top of his game.
But there is no doubt the industry will be a much poorer place without him.
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