Tesco Considering Sale of Asian Businesses

Retail news from Asia, from Japan to Russia, and down through India and Polynesia
veteran+
Valued Contributor
Valued Contributor
Posts: 2234
Joined: January 3rd, 2015, 7:53 am
Has thanked: 1204 times
Been thanked: 71 times
Status: Offline

Re: Tesco Considering Sale of Asian Businesses

Post by veteran+ »

pseudo3d wrote: June 5th, 2020, 12:22 am
cathandler wrote: December 29th, 2019, 1:15 pm Hubris is one thing (and there was a fair amount of it with respect to Tesco's history in the US) but the thing is that Tesco had run out of growth opportunities in its home territory so in order to continue to grow they had to look to new territories. It's the same impulse that led J. Sainsbury to buy into (and eventually assume full ownership of) Shaw's. As with Sainsbury's giving up its international ambitions, Tesco is responding to ever-increasing competitive pressures in its home market.
From what I could tell, Sainsbury's did a decent job controlling Shaw's, keeping the chain for about 15 years or so and expanding it through new growth and Star Market. The merger with Star Market did probably muck up the works (I believe Shaw's was the low price leader originally and Star Market was the more upmarket one...or do I have that reversed?) and of course, SuperValu didn't help matters much. Still, Shaw's/Star Market survived and was able to be sold for $2.5B, something that Fresh & Easy wasn't able to do (it sure wasn't a billion-dollar sale).

One wonders why Tesco didn't just buy an existing supermarket and not try to reinvent the wheel...
Two words: Uber hubris
Post Reply