Tesco to cull brands from shelves
Tesco is readying another cull of the brands on its shelves.
Tesco
According to The Times, chief executive Dave Lewis plans to shed 20% of its 40,000 products as it tries to fight back against discounters Aldi and Lidl.
The first of these cuts began in 2015, just a year after Lewis’ arrival at the retailer when he axed brands including Carlsberg, Ribena, Capri-Sun and Kingsmill.
Since then, he has more than halved the number of individual products - at one point standing at 90,000 - stocked by Tesco across its stores.
However, The Times reports that Andrew Yaxley, chief product officer, told suppliers last week that more cuts are on the way and will focus on its household products.
Lewis also plans to cut costs by placing bigger orders with fewer suppliers, as well as rebranding and prioritising Tesco’s own-label ranges.
As of last October, it was 80% complete on the rebranding of its own-label ranges and had invested heavily in marketing as result.