Tesco UK CEO Jason Tarry on coronavirus, Brexit and the new executive team

Well, absolutely delighted, as you might expect, to receive this award. Very happy, and particularly happy on behalf of my hundreds of thousands of colleagues who have worked very hard to make sure we were in the right place to win the award. So yeah, very happy and delighted to receive it on their behalf.

Yeah, you're right, it does feel like a long time ago. It's been quite a year so far, hasn't it? Casting your mind back to that time is quite an interesting thing to do. Look, I think it was really the final year of our turnaround. It was the culmination of all the work we had done to turn around Tesco, focusing very much on the customer at the heart of it, also making sure we were in the right place to move to the next phase of our plan. I think the key success for us last year was the focus we had on the customer, the shopping trip, the basics, making sure we could really deliver on that. And we were very happy to win both the Store of the Week award last year and also the Availability award, which was a great testament to that.

Well, I think a couple of things. One was that we said we wanted to increase the capacity of our online business. We spent the last four or five years focusing on turning it into a more efficient operation, one that could contribute financially, and we were ready to expand online again. We also wanted to differentiate our offer through our loyalty scheme, Clubcard, and we launched Clubcard Plus at the back end of 2019. The final thing we wanted to do was go again on value. We had done a lot of work around exclusive Tesco brands and Farm Brands at Tesco and price investment, so we wanted to go again on those things. I think all of those played out well for us in terms of getting ready for what happened in March.

Well, it was back end of February when we really started to see this thing emerging, and sort of early part of March it really took off. I think Mother's Day 2020, the 22nd of March, was a day I'll never forget. That was the day the lockdown launched, we put in place a priority hour for NHS workers, and we had Mother's Day. It was a very difficult day for most of my colleagues in most of the stores with the volume of customers and the challenges it presented. But it kicked off a couple of weeks before then. At first we were struggling to keep up with what was happening. It wasn't until the end of the first week of lockdown, when we were out in stores with our colleagues, that we realized we needed to start there and not start in the center, listening to and hearing from our colleagues what was unfolding in front of them in the stores with customers, and taking action based on their feedback to support them to serve our shoppers as best they can. I think that was a real breakthrough moment for us. But those first few days and weeks were extremely challenging, very much about making sure we could support our colleagues on the front line doing what they do best.

I totally agree with you, Adam. I think the whole industry has stepped up amazingly well in these very difficult times. As a result, the public perceive us as an industry differently, and I hope the government do too, in terms of the role we play. And that's not just the supermarkets, it's the suppliers, producers, farmers, distribution companies, everybody involved in the food supply chain and other essential item supply chains have done an amazing job through the Covid pandemic in very difficult circumstances. I think we did our bit too. Tesco is at its best when it's up against it, when there is a crisis. I think our colleagues stepped forward in an amazing way, right from day one, really stepped up to take responsibility to do the things they felt were right. We obviously had a great platform to be able to do that: the 3,671 stores we have, the online operation we already had, and our ability to scale up and adapt with our platforms worked really well for us. But at the heart of it were our colleagues, the way they lived our values and got on with it in a way that I could only have hoped for.

We're better prepared than last time. To use another sporting parlance, we're pretty much match fit around keeping alert, adapting what we do, focus on trying to do everything we can do. So no doubt we're better than we were, but we are still in territory that's uncharted. It's still unfolding in front of us, and staying alert and adapting to what needs to be done is still something we're learning about. Going into lockdown and restrictions last time we were going into the summer months, a relatively quiet time of year. Obviously at the moment we're heading into Christmas, we still have a Brexit happening at the end of the year as well. So there are definitely some new things we need to focus on going into this lockdown, but I'd say we're definitely better prepared than we were in March.

Yeah, we're planning for Brexit as well. We have a small team that are pretty much dedicated to it, focused on working with the government and working with our operational teams to make sure we're as prepared as we can be, without distracting people from serving customers during a lockdown period into Covid and as we go into Christmas as well. So yes, it's very much a priority for us, and we're doing everything we can to protect availability and continue to serve customers well and look after our colleagues.

Yeah, look, I really hesitate to think about it or talk about it in terms of good news. I think this pandemic is a terrible thing that has affected all of us, both on a personal and professional level. Putting aside your own personal feelings and focusing on trying to operate to provide food and other essential products for customers when a lot of the market is shut down is a key focus for us. We spent a lot of time understanding how to get key products through our supply chain, stock and keep available those throughout the supply chains, either through our own storage networks or through the suppliers, prioritizing ranges so we can temporarily or in some cases permanently remove products to keep available all the key items. Looking at our trade plan to make sure we're not inadvertently driving extra trade when customers are looking to buy everything they need. We're focusing hard on making sure that can happen, asking them not to buy more than they need, and of course making sure we're supporting our colleagues and customers for it to be the safest possible shopping trip. A lot of work around what it means for our clinically extremely vulnerable customers and colleagues, making sure we have all the right safety measures in stores, managing social distancing, hygiene, cleanliness. It's a real focus across the entire shopping trip and pretty much takes up most of our time at the moment.

Yeah, that's a good question. You're right, you and I first talked many years ago when I was Chief Product Officer about what we were doing to reset our ranges. We're always looking at optimizing range and making sure we can adapt to trends and the way customers want to shop and consume, so it's a never-ending piece of work. We're quite conscious and keen, though, that where we are reducing range, it's where customers are consuming less, and moving to where they're consuming more. So we've spent quite a lot of time focusing on having the right range and then building in new ranges that customers want – plant-based is a great example of that, and we'll continue to focus on that. I have to say our suppliers have been fantastic over the course of the pandemic and continue to be so in working closely together to help them produce and supply the key lines. They're doing everything they can to make sure we have the products to serve customers. I'd like to pay tribute to all of our supply partners who have done a fantastic job in very difficult circumstances themselves. I think one of the few silver linings in this horrible cloud has been the way the general public has recognized the role of the food industry during this pandemic. One of the things I've seen from my colleagues in stores is the pride they have through being recognized and appreciated for the role they're able to perform at the moment. It's not always been the case that people who work in the supermarket industry have been talked about positively, but during the pandemic that has been the case. If I had one wish once we're through this, it's that that appreciation continues for the roles people perform in our food industry. And the way you're going to shine a light further upstream into the food supply chain is great because hopefully we'll see more coverage and appreciation for those workers as well.

Yeah, it's been a pleasure and a privilege working with all of them, and I'll continue to enjoy working with Charles until February and Alan until April. Look, amazing leaders, all three of them, incredible lessons in leadership that I've learned. I think Alan's work in reshaping our portfolio and strengthening our balance sheet has been incredible. Dave quite simply has been a brilliant leader for Tesco and led an amazing turnaround, and it's been a privilege working alongside him and for him. Charles is unique, a complete one-off. He's got an amazing ability to keep things simple and focused, he's amazingly generous with his time, and he's a super person. So yeah, going to miss them all, but we are still focused on continuing what we were doing before in terms of taking Tesco into the next stage. Ken's just joined us, he's going through his induction at the moment. He'll bring more to us, and we'll be able to go again. For those of us that have been in the business a long time – 30 years this year for me – it's great because it's been great the last five or six years, and I'm really looking forward to the next number of years working with Ken, bringing his fresh perspective and new ideas into the business. So yeah, it's exciting times.