The Klaviyo Outstanding Contribution
to Retail Award
ANDREW HIGGINSON
Andy Higginson’s first role in retail wasn’t the most auspicious of introductions. He walked straight into a crisis when emergency measures were needed.
But it was the start of a distinguished career, encompassing executive and non-exec roles, during which he has played a key part in transforming the retail landscape and consumer expectations, as well as fighting for the interests of the whole industry.
In 1990, he joined fashion and home retailer Laura Ashley when it was engulfed in crisis. Today, as chair of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), he’s still familiar with tough times, representing retail as it confronts punishing conditions caused by brutal cost pressures, intense competition and shaky consumer confidence.
Higginson, best known for more than a decade at Tesco when it was at the height of its powers, went on to chair a diverse selection of retailers including Morrisons, N Brown and Poundland. Now, he is chair of JD Sports.
“It was a fantastic time to be a young finance director. Naive enough to believe you could sort it out but not experienced enough to be wary of it”
Where it all began
He arrived at Laura Ashley having started his career in FMCG. Higginson thought he was joining a “very good international brand” but, by the time he took up his post, a recession had hit and urgent action was needed.
“They hadn't had a finance director for 18 months because they hadn't thought they needed one,” Higginson laughs. “I joined just as the banks pulled the plug.”
Laura Ashley had signalled the possibility that it might breach its covenants – and that prompted the banks to withdraw funding.
Higginson recalls: “We then had to go into an emergency situation of closing factories, selling businesses off and renegotiating our borrowing facilities.”
However, Higginson relished the baptism of fire. He says: “It was a fantastic time to be a young finance director. Naive enough to believe you could kind of sort it out but not experienced enough to be wary of it.”
Banking on hope
After Laura Ashley, Higginson’s next stop was Burton – later demerged as Arcadia and Debenhams – where he worked alongside famous retail names such as chief executive John Hoerner, who years later joined Higginson at Tesco, Terry Green and Stuart Rose – before he was headhunted to join Tesco in 1997.
As he looks back on his early retail days at Laura Ashley, he says: “The very specific thing I learned, which became very helpful to me in 2007/08, when I was chief financial officer at Tesco during the global financial crisis, was that the banks look after the banks.
“We literally were looking every week saying, right, we've got to pay the wages. How much cash will we have left at the end of that?”
“You have these nice customer-facing people until something goes a bit wrong. Then you got what we used to call the ‘TLC department’ – the ones who come in and start beating you up.
“The thing I learned there was you couldn't rely on the banks at a time of crisis, as the banks would only do what was best for them. Never, ever, put yourself in a position where you're asking the bank to waive covenants, or asking them for a favour, because they will take advantage.
“The other thing is that cash is king. We literally were looking every week saying, right, we've got to pay the wages. How much cash will we have left at the end of that? Which supplier shall we pay?”
Higginson joined Laura Ashley 'just as the banks pulled the plug'
Higginson joined Laura Ashley 'just as the banks pulled the plug'
'The very specific thing I learned, which became very helpful to me in 2007/08, was that the banks look after the banks'
'The very specific thing I learned, which became very helpful to me in 2007/08, was that the banks look after the banks'
After Laura Ashley, Higginson’s next stop was Burton, then Tesco
After Laura Ashley, Higginson’s next stop was Burton, then Tesco
“Every business I've ever met in retail says they're focused on the customer. Very few of them are. When it comes to a business decision, are you doing it for the customer or are you doing it because it improves your P&L?”
Higginson with Tesco colleagues Stuart Rose and Terry Leahy
Higginson with Tesco colleagues Stuart Rose and Terry Leahy
Higginson says 'Tesco earned the right to grow' through constant innovation
Higginson says 'Tesco earned the right to grow' through constant innovation
Innovation and growth
The contrast with Tesco could hardly have been greater. The grocer was on the up, led by industry legend Terry Leahy – not a Sir yet. At that time and in the following years, it would push into hypermarkets and non-food, convenience and online, international markets and new services, and became one of the world’s most respected retailers.
Higginson extended his finance responsibilities and went on to lead strategy and retail services, which included online, the bank and data business Dunnhumby. During his time at Tesco, the retailer increased sales from £17bn to £70bn and profits climbed four-fold.
He says: “It was a great time to join an amazing team and a very fast-growing, diversified business.”
What is “extraordinary”, he thinks, is that all the pillars of Tesco’s diverse strategy worked.
Critics of Tesco, he points out, often claim it succeeded as a result of scale that allowed it to dominate. That, he argues, is “absolute rubbish”. It was only in 1995 that Tesco overtook Sainsbury’s as the UK's biggest grocer.
“The reason Tesco grew was innovation,” he maintains. “We genuinely did innovate in terms of new markets, new products – Finest, value lines, all those kinds of things. Clubcard was at the heart of it.
“Express stores – we were first to move into convenience in a big way. Hypermarkets, which the UK didn't really have; 24-hour opening – opening beyond 8pm was a huge change to culture as well. It really was a lot of innovation. Tesco earned the right to grow.”
The right people
A takeaway from Tesco’s success was the importance of quality leadership. “Terry is an exceptional leader,” Higginson says. “He was also sensible enough to have strong people around him.”
As well as Higginson, Tesco’s top team at the time included luminaries such as marketing director Tim Mason and David Potts, who went on to run Morrisons. The differences between people were a strength.
“Terry was very much an analytical kind of guy. Tim would have hundreds of crazy ideas and Terry had the ability to sift through them in an analytical way and identify the real winners. That was a very powerful combination.”
Higginson describes his contribution as being “a commercial finance person”. He says: “I saw myself as another businessperson around the leadership table. Part of my job was to try to have the business focus on the financial metrics but make them clear and simple and easy for people to understand.
“Talk about return on capital employed and people’s eyes glaze over. If you talk about building stores for less, people get that immediately.”
Tables turn
After the departure of Leahy in 2011, followed not long after by Higginson, Tesco ran into trouble. For Higginson, retail problems at many companies often stem from losing the connection to the shopper.
He says: “You’ve got to be there for them. Every business I've ever met in this space says they're focused on the customer. Very few of them are. Tesco was, certainly for a long period. When it comes to a business decision, are you doing it for the customer or are you doing it for you, because it improves your P&L?
“If we get it wrong, people will vote with their feet. That is exactly what happened in 2013/14.”
Higginson was reunited with Potts at Morrisons, which in 2021, after leading a turnaround, they sold for £7bn to private equity group CD&R, where Leahy is a senior adviser and chair of the grocer. In 2022, Higginson was appointed chair of JD Sports where he led a governance overhaul and his international experience is valuable as the retailer expands overseas.
“People sometimes think retail is an easy job – it isn't. It's simple in concept but organising that is unbelievably difficult. Customers want it all”
A competitive industry
Looking back, Higginson observes that many of the big brands of the past – including some he has worked at such as Laura Ashley, Arcadia and Debenhams – are gone or diminished.
He says: “People sometimes think retail is an easy job – it isn't. It's simple in concept but organising that is unbelievably difficult. Customers want it all. It’s competitive and if someone else does it better, they'll go there.”
At present, many retailers are facing difficulties as they confront the extra costs imposed in last autumn’s Budget. Higginson is pleased to be involved with the BRC, supporting chief executive Helen Dickinson in her efforts to make the industry’s voice heard.
“I don't think politicians really understand the world of work on the business side”
He says: “Having been in the industry for many years, sometimes you must fight your own corner. But a lot of the time it's more powerful if you stand up as an industry, shoulder to shoulder.
“We are naturally an intensely competitive industry, so getting that kind of unity of purpose is quite an achievement, which I think Helen and the team do very well.
“It's important to understand just how important retail is. We employ a lot of people and we employ them everywhere. This is not one big building with a lot of people, we are employing people in every town and village in the country.
“I don't think politicians really understand the world of work on the business side. That was true of the previous government as well. But there’s no point moaning about it, as our job is to try and educate people in terms of what the consequences of their actions will be.”
Opening doors of opportunity
Higginson, who comes from a modest background in Bury, says one of the things he loves about retail is that it is a meritocracy and offers huge career opportunities.
The industry enabled him to make it and he is playing his part in efforts to ensure it thrives and opens doors to others’ brilliant careers.
He says: “You get on because you're good, not because of what you say, or who you are, or where you come from, or which school you went to. You get on based on your contribution. I still think it’s possible for a David Potts to start stacking shelves at 16 and become the chief executive. And long may it continue.”
Higginson says in retail 'you get on because you're good, not because of what you say, or who you are, or where you come from'
Higginson says in retail 'you get on because you're good, not because of what you say, or who you are, or where you come from'
