Remains a last Nugget financial services

In each class in each school there are always a. This gifted that everyone looks with curiosity and envy and attempted singer. He never shows the slightest effort and more testing is difficult, seems more relaxed. And then one day, through an unexpected event, sometimes a tragedy, there is a fault in the armor. His exceptional talent often mask more serious weaknesses that they have long been hidden.

Tesco is to them. It is the most gifted class épicière, Wal-Mart or the crossroads. In announcing last week that it had registered an increase of more than 10 of its operating profit and sales more than 13.5 in global crisis, he was still upset any profession that betting taking place on its decline. And even if some of his colleagues in Britain were well sold at year end, is the world champion of profitability, with margins that bordered the 11 in 2007 and beyond even the 6 on its territory, it dominates the head and shoulders. Its share of the United Kingdom market exceeds 30, two times more than its main competitors, Asda subsidiary Wal-Mart and Sainsbury.

If the group is born in a warehouse in the East End London in 1919, the model which is its success today is much more recent. At the beginning of the 1980s, Tesco was still only a zealous follower of the two stars of the market at the time, Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury's. The current policy is in large part the work of a man of art, Terry Leahy, who after having climbed all levels of the marketing department, eventually taking the helm of Tesco in 1997. Its phenomenal success stems from the combination of a science completed from knowledge of the client and his needs and discipline without fault in the execution. Its philosophy is based on three strong pillars: the multi-format, own brand and diversification.

Well until it became fashionable, Tesco has tested the principle of the multi-format with five categories of stores, the Express for the small neighborhood store, the Metro for the large store of downtown, the super and hypermarkets (known as Extra) for very large surfaces. More recently, a new category is added with the most Home dedicated to the plastijo. A way of grid plate territory walking both on the very large surfaces of periphery broken, type hub, and on the High Street stores, expensive inner cities in his Majesty's subjects, Kingdom of Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury. All under the single brand name Tesco.

The second pillar, and the most original probably, is the priority to the own brand. Here again, the segmentation is applied as finely as possible with three levels. Tesco Finest for the high-end, Tesco Standard for the mid-tier and Tesco Value for the first prize. The true success is to be able to settle on the premium market to sell chocolate or with yoghurt Finest 50 more expensive than brands like Cadbury or Danone. Since last fall, a new category has emerged, "discounter", which as its name indicates aims to compete with the "hard discount" champions such as Aldi or Lidl. In total, the Distributor, to higher margin products, represent 60 to 70 of the turnover of shops. A performance then that other major sector does not exceed 30.

The last strategic pillar is diversification. If Carrefour in Europe introduced the concept of the supermarket where you can find both his cores to 1 euro and its plasma screen to 1,000, Tesco became the number one domain Revel, applying his recipe for mark to three floors. The plastijo represents one third of its sales, or twice the sales of Marks & Spencer, his rival in the past... But the company has further still the logic also invading the sphere of services. In addition to gasoline as early as 1997, he started including Internet access, and then the fixed and mobile phone and, finally, the Bank. The intelligence of Tesco was build from the outset on its brand, centralize the management of all its formats, fly its assortment with a computer tool unique in the world. It is an extremely powerful sales and customer data analysis system, developed by Dunnhumby, which Tesco holds the majority of the capital. He is to unify the mosaic of approximately 3,700 stores Tesco in 5 sizes and in 13 countries. He is also giving the British grocer a decisive advantage on the better match of its needs and the desires of its customers.

Result of all this, between 1999 and 2008, Tesco multiplied by three sales and profits by five. The machine is now so oiled that it is not what could reach him. So, where is the fault of the most gifted of the grocery store EH well perhaps in the difficulty to continue forever such a route. Tesco will have trouble even increase its share of 30 of the market in the United Kingdom. Browsed already, since a year, its competitors, Asda, Aldi and Sainsbury upon its empire, especially on the "hard discount" popular at this time. Their growth is superior, as they sell mostly food, less sensitive to reduction of the purchasing power of consumers. In addition, the ubiquity of Tesco in all cities of the Kingdom began offending. Committees to put in place to prevent new settlements in the downtown. As in France, it accuses the villain great Tesco want to kill the small trade.

The Tesco asking growth model, it will therefore have to go look elsewhere for. Two runways are promising: the international and financial services. This is more than ten years that the company tries to deploy outside its borders. It has captured beautiful places fortes, but in secondary markets, as in the East, Thailand or Korea. On large territories that are China, the India or the United States, where are its powerful competitors, it is still a start-up. In 2006, the British started in the US market with the intention to invest 6 billion over four years. To differentiate, he has played the card of the proximity and quality, with neighbourhood stores, called "fresh and easy" and the same philosophy of Tesco high range products. One hundred and fifteen stores later, the group is to fold. The crisis has halted the momentum and consumers did not understand the concept of a top brand of range.

Remains a last Nugget, financial services. Last December, the group bought the participation of Royal Bank of Scotland in their common society. It is now the only banker on board. Paradoxically, he benefited from the crisis with a doubling in six months of its balance sheet. Here, the agencies are located in Tesco Stores and services cover all products for individuals, the simple account to the real estate loan or insurance. Morgan Stanley analysts have calculated that if Tesco has given 5 of the market of retail in the UK, it would recover 1 billion pounds of profit. It is still far (a little more of 200 million pounds while), but the route is promising, even if the current circumstances difficult for financial institutions. The first Tesco class therefore still has a bit of flexibility, but he still has an interest to strengthen seriously in the learning of foreign languages.