Much has been made of incoming Tesco CEO Dave Lewis’ lack of retail knowledge – which seems rather churlish. You don’t spend 27 years at Unilever, one of the world’s biggest fmcg companies, without picking up a thing or two about retail both in the UK and around the globe. 

Lewis was guest editor of The Grocer back in 2010 – in the same week as his promotion from Unilever’s UK chairman to president of its Americas operation. In a Q&A session he discussed his relationship with the major UK supermarkets and how closely Unilever worked with them. 

“Our reach in terms of categories is better than anyone else in the UK and penetration is massively greater than any other fmcg player,” he explained. “I’m not a big fan of talking about power in the relationship, it’s not about that. We live or die by how good we are by the category-specific engagement. I don’t think size can ever be at the expense of expertise.” 

This may be something he will do well to remember in his new job. Equally he will be able to draw on his experience in building relationships between Unilever and the big supermarkets. In the same piece he discussed how he had won over retailers during his stint as Unilever’s UK chairman by engaging more fully with their needs. 

Dave Lewis

Incoming Tesco boss Dave Lewis

Despite earning a reputation for being a tough cookie and the nickname ‘Drastic Dave’ as a result of his decisions to cut 300 jobs in 2007 and then halve the number of SKUs it sold in 2009, Lewis is more of diplomat than anything else. 

Throughout his time at Unilever he was constantly championing the path of collaboration with retailers; an approach he repeated in his work on public health. 

Lewis, along with Andrew Lansley, was effectively the architect of the current government’s health Responsibility Deal. In 2008 he was tasked by Lansley, then shadow health secretary, to chair the Public Health Commission. 

The report compiled by the commission was largely co-opted by Lansley to shape Tory health policy going into the last general election and was the blueprint for the Deal, which – lest we forget – looked to improve public health by getting the food industry, government and health organisations to work together, and by gently nudging the public to make better decisions about diet and lifestyle. 

Lewis said at the time the people around that table agreed on 98% of the issues but that progress was being put at risk due to squabbles over the remaining 2%. “Identifying commonalities and aligning ourselves behind them will enable us to more effectively work with government policymakers and other parties,” he said. 

Of course it is a rare thing for someone so deeply associated with the supply side to be handed the controls of a big retailer but it is not without precedent. Morrisons opted to follow Sir Ken, a born retailer, with Marc Bolland, who at the time was a Heineken marketer. 

Bolland successfully turned Morrisons around as it struggled to digest the Safeway acquisition, before being poached by M&S. 

There is no doubting that Lewis faces a tough challenge ahead. The retail landscape has changed beyond recognition in the last couple of years and Tesco, like all of the big supermarkets, may never be able to reclaim the stranglehold it once had on the UK grocery market. 

To think he can come in and wave a magic wand and fix all of Tesco’s woes is fantasy, just as it is to put the blame for all of them at the feet of Philip Clarke. However Lewis is energetic and charismatic; skills that will at least buy him some time. 

In 2010 he said: “I don’t mind if some of the things I try don’t work. I don’t think my customers would worry either. They only worry when I keep going and going when it doesn’t work. I’ve a simple rule: I want to try some things, and if I don’t get some things wrong, I am probably not trying hard enough.” 

Philip Clarke tried a lot of things too during his nearly three-and-a-half years in charge; Lewis must hope that the Tesco shareholders give him enough time to make sure more of the things he tries do work.