Tesco’s £1bn plan to lose its ‘shabby’ shops image

SHABBY Tesco stores are to be revamped as part of a £1billion revival plan that will include hiring an extra 8,000 staff to improve customer service.

Details were revealed yesterday as Britain’s biggest retailer confirmed sales in the UK continue to show an annual fall.

The company is scaling back on building large supermarkets in favour of peppering the nation’s streets with hundreds more Express convenience stores.

Tesco – slogan Every Little Helps – is planning new-look own-label ranges and hopes to build customer numbers by carpet bombing homes with money-off vouchers.

Chief executive Philip Clarke admitted that Tesco had failed to pay sufficient attention to its UK customers and to stores which are seen as having become shabby, cluttered and confusing. Instead the company concentrated on expanding in Europe, the U.S. and the Far East.

Profits in this country dropped 1 per cent to £2.5billion in the year to the end of February 2012. But improvements overseas meant overall group profits were 1.6 per cent higher at £3.9billion.

More than £5billion has been wiped off Tesco’s stock market value in the last six months. Some City analysts questioned whether the new strategy is bold enough to deliver real improvements.

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