Tesco poaches Tate & Lyle CFO as half-year profits and sales climb

Imran Nawaz, who will take up the role of chief financial officer at Tesco next April, had been at Tate & Lyle since 2018 and previously held roles as senior vice-president of finance for Mondelēz Europe as well as a variety of senior roles across Mondelēz and Kraft Foods spanning a 16-year period.

He succeeds Alan Stewart, who is set to retire next year.

Nawaz is the first appointment by Tesco’s new chief executive Ken Murphy, who has delivered his first set of results as leader of the grocer today following the departure of predecessor Dave Lewis last week.

The supermarket retailer has reported a 29% jump in pre-tax profit to £551m in the 26 weeks to August 29, driven by a 6.8% rise in group sales to £26.7bn. 

Tesco UK and ROI sales rose 8.5% during the period to £24.3bn, bolstered by a 69% spike in online sales. The grocer’s online sales have risen steeply throughout the quarter as shoppers flocked online during the coronavirus pandemic, and its online grew 90% at peak during its second quarter as the grocer more than doubled its online order capacity to 1.5 million slots per week.

Tesco’s convenience sales increased 7.6% in the half driven by its Express and One Stop stores in neighbourhood locations. In larger stores sales increased 1.4%, with the average basket size up 56% and transactions falling 31% as shoppers chose to do larger shops less regularly.

The grocer said more than one million customers have become more loyal to its business during the pandemic, with approximately 90% of shoppers rating store safety highly.

Tesco racked up £533m in costs associated with responding to the Covid-19 pandemic in its first half.

The grocer also extended its Clubcard Prices scheme, which offers loyalty card members discounted prices across 2,000 products, and extended its Aldi Price Match, which launched in March, to approximately 500 lines.

Murphy said: “The first half of this year has tested our business in ways we had never imagined and our colleagues have risen brilliantly to every challenge, acting in the best interests of our customers and local communities throughout.

“We are absolutely committed to continuing to invest in value for customers and safety for all in these uncertain times.

“Tesco is a great business with many strategic advantages. I’m excited by the range of opportunities we have to use those advantages to create further value for our customers and, in doing so, create value for all of our other stakeholders.”

On Nawaz’s appointment, Murphy said: “At the start of this search, we set out with the goal of finding a candidate with a blend of financial, strategic and leadership qualities, and with the right values to fit into the Tesco culture. In Imran, we have found all those attributes and I am looking forward to working alongside him.”