My local independent newsagent complains that I always write about Tesco in this column. He's going to be disappointed again, I'm afraid, after another very busy week for the UK's biggest and most important retailer.
In an interview with The Times on Thursday, Sir Terry Leahy accused his rivals of "a failure of imagination". Asked why rivals had not picked up on the fact that "people spend more on services than they do on products", he used the point as a rallying cry for nationwide reinvigoration.
"The thing I would say is, never set limits on yourself, don't define your business or yourself by your past experience, look out and look forward," said Leahy.
And Sir Terry added: "The eureka moment for us was when we stopped seeing ourselves as a purveyor of baked beans, and as a servant of a customer. And you realise that baked beans don't change very much, but customers change enormously, and they take you into amazing areas."
It was a fascinating insight into Tesco's thinking, but also Sir Terry's uncharacteristic smugness. And one reason for this might be the timing of his exit. As the ASA banned an ad from Tesco's Real Baskets campaign this week, a bigger storm was brewing over Tesco's "aggressive" accounting practices.
A report by Citi on Wednesday suggested Tesco's pre-tax profits would be £800m lower if it adopted the same accounting practices as its supermarket peers.
Even more significant was a note sent out by Evolution Securities analyst Dave McCarthy the following day. Under the heading "Tesco: worse than City thinks", the normally pro-Tesco analyst said: "There are still many who are holding on to the old belief that food retailing is defensive, that inflation will save the sector long-term, and that there is still plenty of growth opportunity."
Interesting times.
In an interview with The Times on Thursday, Sir Terry Leahy accused his rivals of "a failure of imagination". Asked why rivals had not picked up on the fact that "people spend more on services than they do on products", he used the point as a rallying cry for nationwide reinvigoration.
"The thing I would say is, never set limits on yourself, don't define your business or yourself by your past experience, look out and look forward," said Leahy.
And Sir Terry added: "The eureka moment for us was when we stopped seeing ourselves as a purveyor of baked beans, and as a servant of a customer. And you realise that baked beans don't change very much, but customers change enormously, and they take you into amazing areas."
It was a fascinating insight into Tesco's thinking, but also Sir Terry's uncharacteristic smugness. And one reason for this might be the timing of his exit. As the ASA banned an ad from Tesco's Real Baskets campaign this week, a bigger storm was brewing over Tesco's "aggressive" accounting practices.
A report by Citi on Wednesday suggested Tesco's pre-tax profits would be £800m lower if it adopted the same accounting practices as its supermarket peers.
Even more significant was a note sent out by Evolution Securities analyst Dave McCarthy the following day. Under the heading "Tesco: worse than City thinks", the normally pro-Tesco analyst said: "There are still many who are holding on to the old belief that food retailing is defensive, that inflation will save the sector long-term, and that there is still plenty of growth opportunity."
Interesting times.
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