Today is 51 (fifty-one) days until Dave Lewis takes the helm at the UK’s biggest retailer. Grocery Insight are counting down to the start of his reign with an improvement point per day. Due to the growing nature of the list causing issues with our template, please click on Tesco to see all the posts containing the 66.
Part of the own label overhaul saw Philip Clarke set out to revamp each tier as part of the plan to put ‘food first’, they did revamp ranges and whilst Finest was a successful launch, it didn’t do much to move the dial overall. Perhaps the issue with the wider business experiencing problems, there is so much (66) to fix that propositional Extras, Finest, Value etc can’t do it on their own.
Another blog will consider core OL (own label) and what a missed opportunity that has been, refreshing packaging without making categories compelling enough to shop, nowhere near the level of clarity that Sainsbury’s boast of for example.
In any case, Value was a prime candidate for a refresh given that it looked dated, Morrisons had revamped their tired Value range into M Savers which was receiving plaudits for the packaging and quality of product. Once Morrisons revamped, their competitors had to follow and Tesco were quick to do so, changing ‘Value’ for ‘Everyday Value’.
The issue for Tesco was that they (like Morrisons) launched this value tier completely, thus making their core OL products unappealing by comparison. The OL revamp was moving across category by category so it took time and meant that the value tier looked more appealing than the dated core own label tier.
There some good work within the expanded range of Everyday Value, a project spearheaded by London head Andrew Yaxley of course before he moved off to head up the London format. As the OL offer has developed, there is a more cohesive offer with good, better, best but OL still lags their competitors, particularly Sainsbury’s.
Whilst Everyday Value is strong in its own right and representative of a good relaunch, is it still relevant? Aldi has taught us that you don’t need a plethora of options in terms of a good, better, best as they trade perfectly well within the better/best option for the majority of their own label. They do have some ‘value’ under ‘Everyday Essentials’ and perhaps a focused approach for value OL is needed?
We are straying into the range rationalisation blog perhaps, but if radical thinking is required; could own label and Everyday Value merge together with a lower price? Thus simplifying the shopping trip and allowing real volume to go through a new tier, does Everyday Value still have a major role to play in the shopping trip of today’s customer?
Dave Lewis has to decide if he decide to be ‘drastic’, how would he play it. Does he merge core OL and Value, remove Value entirely or bring Value into the mainstream at the expense of core OL. For any of these options, is it necessary to have the tiers in all categories?
A very interesting one to watch.
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