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Dave Lewis
Tesco CEO
Last ranked: NEW
Highlights of the new Tesco CEO’s first four months in charge include, to name but a few, being parachuted in a month early on the back of haemmorhaging sales, discovering a £263m financial black hole, suspending nine of his senior executives over a serious fraud investigation and closing or pulling the plug on nearly 100 stores. Not exactly your typical honeymoon period.
Yet Tesco CEO Dave Lewis has already shown signs he is succeeding, where Philip Clarke so obviously failed, in the titanic task of fixing the leaking supertanker. His first focus was counterintuitive: sorting Tesco’s availability. Recruiting extra shelf-stackers to fill the gaps immediately endeared him to frontline store staff. And while head office won’t thank Lewis for his £250m savings programme - which includes jettisoning Tesco’s final salary pension and even its iconic Cheshunt HQ - the ex-Unilever UK boss has impressed the City with his decisiveness.
Crucially Lewis has promised to reset the relationship between Tesco buyers and its suppliers to shift the emphasis from back margin to front margin and simplify the buying process. Hundreds of buyers are expected to leave as part of the shakeup.
And in August, shoppers will see the biggest evidence yet of the new strategy, with Tesco’s range set to reduce by up to a third, as well as significant changes to its store layouts. In short, Lewis has been a busy man since taking over, probably busier than even he imagined. But he has shown he’s more than prepared to wield his newfound power.
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