A brief examination of Tesco’s latest results, the 52 weeks ended 28th Feb. 2015, show interesting differences in their trading margins for the UK, EU, and Asian businesses.
Whilst the Tesco overall trading margin is 2.2% - itself too low for a City that would prefer at least 4% - it can be seen that the results are significantly different for the three geographies. This would suggest that global suppliers will need three different strategies to optimise the profitability of their overall Tesco relationship.
In other words, Tesco’s three retail businesses have to be viewed and managed as separate SBUs to optimise the overall global potential for your brand.
In practice, with trading margins in the UK at 1.1%, the EU at 1.9%, and Asia at 5.7%, Tesco clearly have a need for three different but complementary strategies:
UK: With Tesco’s ex VAT sales of £43.5bn, coupled with Sainsbury’s and Morrisons expected falls in profits this week, maintaining market share at the expense of competitors via deep price-cutting, has to be a priority for the major multiples.
Given these margin pressures, the temptation for Tesco to transfer ‘excess’ back margin to front margin, may be difficult to resist. In addition, suppliers' willingness to invest in the trading partnership via lower trade prices in exchange for long term commitment to Tesco’s customer-centric policy, may become a negotiating point.
Obviously, 100%, zero-defect service levels and availability have to be a given, from now on…
On balance, suppliers need to come to terms with structural – i.e. ‘permanent’ – changes in the market, and make fundamental decisions re the relative importance of the mults vs. discounters, and Tesco in particular, to their UK business. Having made these decisions, calculating and demonstrating the impact of your trade investment and retail margin on Tesco's trading profits has to be a must…
EU: With ex VAT sales of £8.5bn, Tesco needs to both increase its EU geographical footprint, and grow share in key countries.
Essential for suppliers to ensure that EU colleagues conduct harmonised dealings with Tesco in order to avoid compromising trading relationships in either territory. It is also important that prices and terms are defensible vs. other retailers, in the event that Tesco decides to sell off low margin local business.
In addition, given the move from individual teams for Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia to one regional team focused on buying and operational synergies, there will be more emphasis on investing in the customer offer. Suppliers will need to match this CEE re-structuring, if only to ensure their fair-share levels of investment in Tesco’s customer offer….
Asia: With ex VAT sales of £9.9bn, and a trading margin of 5.7%, it is obvious that Tesco will resist selling off their Asian interests to help re-build their global balance sheet. Instead, it is possible that they will try to increase their regional foot-print, possibly at the expense of some trading margin in the medium term.
Given the potential scale advantages of 24/7 retailing, South Korean restrictions on opening hours means suppliers need to focus on increasing store productivity during permitted times. Restricted demand due to economic conditions in Malaysia and Thailand means that a focus on availability, service and targeted price reductions is essential in order to optimise the productivity of available traffic, without compromising the bottom line.
On balance, it is time for Tesco suppliers to step up and be counted, time to decide if your biggest customer is going to make it via their 3-for-1 global policy.
Signs are that despite these unprecedented times, they will lead a comeback in retail, meaning this is a real opportunity for innovative suppliers to think long-term and join Tesco for the return journey…
Whilst the Tesco overall trading margin is 2.2% - itself too low for a City that would prefer at least 4% - it can be seen that the results are significantly different for the three geographies. This would suggest that global suppliers will need three different strategies to optimise the profitability of their overall Tesco relationship.
In other words, Tesco’s three retail businesses have to be viewed and managed as separate SBUs to optimise the overall global potential for your brand.
In practice, with trading margins in the UK at 1.1%, the EU at 1.9%, and Asia at 5.7%, Tesco clearly have a need for three different but complementary strategies:
UK: With Tesco’s ex VAT sales of £43.5bn, coupled with Sainsbury’s and Morrisons expected falls in profits this week, maintaining market share at the expense of competitors via deep price-cutting, has to be a priority for the major multiples.
Given these margin pressures, the temptation for Tesco to transfer ‘excess’ back margin to front margin, may be difficult to resist. In addition, suppliers' willingness to invest in the trading partnership via lower trade prices in exchange for long term commitment to Tesco’s customer-centric policy, may become a negotiating point.
Obviously, 100%, zero-defect service levels and availability have to be a given, from now on…
On balance, suppliers need to come to terms with structural – i.e. ‘permanent’ – changes in the market, and make fundamental decisions re the relative importance of the mults vs. discounters, and Tesco in particular, to their UK business. Having made these decisions, calculating and demonstrating the impact of your trade investment and retail margin on Tesco's trading profits has to be a must…
EU: With ex VAT sales of £8.5bn, Tesco needs to both increase its EU geographical footprint, and grow share in key countries.
Essential for suppliers to ensure that EU colleagues conduct harmonised dealings with Tesco in order to avoid compromising trading relationships in either territory. It is also important that prices and terms are defensible vs. other retailers, in the event that Tesco decides to sell off low margin local business.
In addition, given the move from individual teams for Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia to one regional team focused on buying and operational synergies, there will be more emphasis on investing in the customer offer. Suppliers will need to match this CEE re-structuring, if only to ensure their fair-share levels of investment in Tesco’s customer offer….
Asia: With ex VAT sales of £9.9bn, and a trading margin of 5.7%, it is obvious that Tesco will resist selling off their Asian interests to help re-build their global balance sheet. Instead, it is possible that they will try to increase their regional foot-print, possibly at the expense of some trading margin in the medium term.
Given the potential scale advantages of 24/7 retailing, South Korean restrictions on opening hours means suppliers need to focus on increasing store productivity during permitted times. Restricted demand due to economic conditions in Malaysia and Thailand means that a focus on availability, service and targeted price reductions is essential in order to optimise the productivity of available traffic, without compromising the bottom line.
On balance, it is time for Tesco suppliers to step up and be counted, time to decide if your biggest customer is going to make it via their 3-for-1 global policy.
Signs are that despite these unprecedented times, they will lead a comeback in retail, meaning this is a real opportunity for innovative suppliers to think long-term and join Tesco for the return journey…
No comments:
Post a Comment