Former Tesco chair slams Terry Leahy’s ‘arrogant’ management

Lord MacLaurin has criticised Leahy’s running of the supermarket chain, accusing him of driving it to the brink of collapse with his “arrogant” and “extravagant” management style.

The former Tesco chair said he regrets hiring Leahy in 1997 and the “whole thing went pair shaped” after his first “four or five years” at the helm, according to The Sunday Times.

“Terry did a very good job for the first four or five years, and I was very pleased about that, but I think towards the end things went haywire,” MacLaurin said.

The former chair said Leahy’s decision to enter America with Fresh & Easy in 2007 was “disastrous” and he told Leahy it was “the worst operation” he’d ever seen.

“It seemed to me that they were putting all this effort, all this money, into America and losing control here when Aldi and Netto and all of that lot were coming through,” said McLaurin.

He added that Leahy’s decision to buy a fleet of private jets for Tesco’s top brass was out of sync with the grocer’s cost-conscious roots.

“They got above themselves,” said McLaurin.

“It got too expensive.”

A source close to Leahy said MacLaurin was “trying to cause as much damage as he can” so that he can claim he was “the one that did everything at Tesco”.

Leahy spent 14 years at the helm of the supermarket chain and was responsible for Tesco Clubcard and its famous slogan ‘Every little helps’.

During his tenure sales soared from £15bn to £68bn a year and profits jumped from £750m to £3.8bn.

Leahy declined to comment on the remarks but MacLaurin stood by his, adding “the truth sometimes hurts”.