Tesco is "boring" – Edwin Booth
The chairman of family-run grocery retailer EH Booth & Co has claimed Tesco's troubles have been partly caused by the supermarket giant becoming "boring". Booth's like-for-like sales increased 3.1 per cent over the Christmas period – compared to a 2.3 per cent fall at Tesco.
Edwin Booth is the fifth generation at the helm of Preston-based EH Booth & Co which now has 29 stores. He said that Tesco hasn't produced what the customer perceives to be "the right value".
In an interview with the North West Business Insider magazine, Booth said: "Tesco has become masters of procuring food, moving it out to stores and into the consumer's basket or home. Logistically they have been very, very skilled and it's all been about efficiencies to such an extent that they've become boring in my view."
He added: "My view on any business that grows at the rate of Tesco has grown is like the willow that grows in the wind. It will bend in the wind. It's very fast growing. You get an ill wind, it starts to bend over.
"It's not a slow growing organisation. It's not an oak. It doesn't grow organically. It has a hunger to make money as opposed to this business which has a hunger to produce a fantastic offer for customers."
He said ultimately the customer is king. "We all know the proliferation of Tesco has been dramatic over the last ten years. What you end up is with fabric which after ten years is starting to look a bit old, it's underinvested," he added.
Booth said his own company's success was built on the quality of the offer to customers.
* The full interview is in February's edition of North West Business Insider. To subscribe call 0161 9079724 or visit www.insidermedia.com/membership
