Fascinating that the presumed beneficiary is actually struggling.
“if customer behaviour were to return to normal by August it is likely that the additional cost headwinds incurred in our retail operations would be largely offset by the benefits of food volume increases, twelve months’ business rates relief in the UK and prudent operations management.”
There are clearly huge operational challenges.
Interestingly – the initial spike in volume (pictured) was driven by 30% of customers buying 60% of the volume (slide 23). Certain items flew off the shelves (slide 24) – you can guess which.
General merchandise, clothing, and fuel have been hit hard (FT suggests the latter two by -70%).
Staff has seen a massive spike in absence and they have had to recruit 45,000 people since 20th of March.
Scaling online has proven very difficult.
Additionally Tesco Bank will swing from £193m profit to a loss this fiscal year (due to bad debts and fall in income).
