Supermarket saga: Tesco's rise, fall and return to profit in pictures

Five years of struggle

Tesco is the UK's biggest supermarket (image: Shutterstock)

Tesco is the UK’s biggest supermarket and a corporate success story that, in the 2000s, seemed invincible. Yet the past five years have seen Tesco brought to its knees, locked in a vicious battle against discount supermarkets, online giants and a huge potential merger of its rivals, with billions of pounds at stake.

First drop in profits for 20 years

Tesco's Kirkcaldy store, which closed in 2015 (image: PA)

After years of record profits and rapid expansion, in April 2013 Tesco reported its first annual fall in profits in two decades. Profits tumbled 52% to £1.96 billion, with Tesco abandoning its US-based Fresh & Easy chain and scrapping plans for 100 extra UK stores. Some existing stores, like this one in Kirkcaldy, would eventually be closed. The slide had begun.

CEO Philip Clarke steps down

Philip Clarke (left) surrounded by reporters (image: PA)

A year later, in July 2014, chief executive Philip Clarke (pictured left) stepped down, following another profit warning (losses eventually amounted to £6.4bn). Clarke had been at the company 40 years, becoming CEO in 2011, but many experts attributed his difficulties to his predecessor, Sir Terry Leary, and Leary’s ill-fated plans to expand. Clarke was replaced by Dave Lewis, who previously worked for Unilever.

Warren Buffett blasts Tesco

Legendary investor Warren Buffett (front, centre) (image: PA)

Tesco’s issues were laid bare when the world’s most famous investor, Warren Buffett, called his investment in the supermarket a “huge mistake”. Buffet’s company Berkshire Hathaway lost £465 million in the value of its Tesco shares in 2014 alone. His outrage coincided with a major accounting scandal that saw four executives be suspended, an FCA investigation and a £250 million shortfall.

Jettisons Blinkbox Music

Blinkbox founder and Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel (image: PA)

In one of its more bizarre acts of expanding into new territory, Tesco tried to get into the music-streaming business, acquiring Blinkbox Music in 2012. Blinkbox, founded by Genesis Frontman Peter Gabriel (pictured) was an unsuccessful competitor to Spotify. Tesco sold it to Australian streaming service in January 2015 and by June, Blinkbox had ceased to exist.

Fake farm foods debacle

A surprised pig (image: Shutterstock)

Tesco faced tough competition from German discount chains Aldi and Lidl. In an attempt to copy them, Tesco launched a range of cheap ‘farm foods’ in 2016, with charming names such as Woodside, Willow and Boswell farms. The problem was, none of these farms actually existed and some of the ingredients were shipped in from abroad. Tesco was heavily criticised by the National Farmers Union and one enraged pig-farmer threatened to sue in 2017, although the fake farm foods are still on sale.

Tesco Bank compromised by fraud

A man withdrawing cash from a Tesco Bank ATM (image: Shutterstock)

In November 2016 it emerged that thousands of Tesco Bank accounts had been compromised, with money being siphoned off by crooks in Brazil and beyond. Tesco Bank, which was launched in 2009, promised to refund customers but was widely criticised for its handling of the fraud.

Acquires Booker for £3.7bn

Londis, one of the brands owned by Booker (image: Shutterstock)

You may not have heard of Booker, but chances are you’ve eaten one of its products. Booker is a wholesale supplier that works with catering companies and owns the Londis, Budgens and Premier labels. Although announced in January 2017, the merger was eventually cleared by the Competition and Markets Authority in November, amongst hopes it could reduce prices for shoppers.

A rotten Christmas present

Christmas turkey (image: Shutterstock)

On the first day of Christmas, families around the country who had bought Tesco turkeys woke up to an unpleasant surprise. Many of the turkeys, which were sold for up to £59, had clearly gone off, despite best before dates on Boxing Day and beyond. Christmas dinners across the country were replaced by takeaways and Tesco was the object of fury on social media.

Mess with Clubcard points at your peril

Tesco clubcard (image: PA)

Tesco Clubcard points are a national institution, with 17 million users in the UK. Yet when Tesco changed the scheme in January 2018, making rewards at some retailers easier to get and other harder, they received a huge backlash at what collectors saw as a devaluation of the points. Changes were delayed but nevertheless came into effect on 10 June.

Planning a rival to Aldi and Lidl

Aldi (image: Shutterstock)

Aldi and Lidl may only have 12% of the market, compared with Tesco’s 28%, but both discounters are growing rapidly and hugely popular with shoppers (read about the rise of Aldi here). In February 2018 the Sunday Times reported that Tesco was planning to launch a rival discounter, with a more limited selection than the main Tesco stores and thus lower running costs.

Always chasing payments

A card terminal (image: Shutterstock)

Visitors to some Tesco Express stores in November, December of 2017 and the following January may not have noticed it, but due to technical problems, many weren’t charged a penny. Unfortunately for them, Tesco caught up with this and debited the money from their accounts, in February, leaving many shoppers confused upon reading their bank statements.

Calling time on best before dates

A basket of fresh products (image: Shutterstock)

Did you know that ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates are different? Foods are perfectly safe to eat after the ‘best before’ date, but the average household chucks away £700 of food every year. That’s why, in May this year, Tesco removed best before dates from most of its own-brand fresh fruit and vegetable packs, which don’t carry use-by dates, so shoppers will now need to judge freshness themselves.

'You can’t out-Amazon Amazon'

The inside of an Amazon warehouse (image: PA)

This was the headline of industry magazine The Grocer, when Tesco announced it was shutting its Tesco Direct online clothes, electrical and homeware online store. Tesco Direct had attempted to take on Amazon by offering a much wider selection than in-store. Its closure, which will be completed in July, showed how far the pendulum has swung, with supermarkets now scrambling to react to Amazon entering the grocery market.

Back in black: a triumphant return

Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis (image: PA)

April saw Tesco announce a huge £1.3 billion pre-tax profit for the year to 24 February 2018 and announce its first final dividend since 2014, giving shareholders a total payment of 3p. Chief executive Dave Lewis was roundly praised for turning the supermarket around, with Lewis claiming that the group could save a further £200 million a year after completing its takeover of wholesaler Booker.

Orange and green clouds on the horizon

Asda and Sainsbury's plan to merge (image: Shutterstock)

Before any Tesco execs had a chance to proclaim, ‘mission accomplished’, a huge merger threatened to create a new rival. Sainsbury’s and Asda have announced their intention to merge, creating a giant that would be larger than Tesco, with Sainsbury’s chief executive promising to cut the price of popular foods by 10%. The deal has yet to be approved by the Competition and Markets Authority at the time of writing, however, so the saga continues.