Dave Lewis to succeed Philip Clarke as Tesco CEO
Sir Richard Broadbent says Clarke succeeded in guiding “Tesco through a substantial re-positioning in challenging markets”.
Print28 July 2014
Tesco plc has announced that Dave Lewis – currently president, Personal Care at Unilever – will join the board of Tesco on 1 October, 2014 as chief executive officer in succession to Philip Clarke. Philip Clarke will continue as chief executive until that date when he will step down from the board but will continue to be available to support the transition until the end of January 2015.
In its latest trading update announced at the same time, Tesco said: “Current trading conditions are more challenging than we anticipated at the time of our first quarter interim management statement on 4 June. The overall market is weaker and, combined with the increasing investments we are making to improve the customer offer and to build long term loyalty, this means that sales and trading profit in the first half of the year are somewhat below expectations.”
Sir Richard Broadbent praised Clarke “outstanding achievement” in “having guided Tesco through a substantial re-positioning in challenging markets.”
On appointment, Lewis will receive a basic salary of £1.25m and standard benefits commensurate with his position. He will receive a sum of £525,000 in lieu of his current year cash bonus from Unilever. In addition, he will receive restricted Tesco plc awards of equivalent expected value in lieu of his deferred share awards from Unilever.
On the appointment of Dave Lewis as Tesco’s new CEO, Natalie Berg, global research director at Planet Retail, commented: “As a branding expert, Lewis’ first task will be to define Tesco. Philip Clarke himself has admitted that the brand has baggage. It doesn’t stand for value, yet it doesn’t stand for quality, and without a clear proposition we fear that Tesco will continue to lose customers to more relevant and better-defined channels.”
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