How Aldi Stole Christmas: Tesco CEO Lewis Can't Halt Stock Slide
- Holiday sales set to decline for fourth time in five years
- U.K. grocer seeking to close gap with discounters on price
Tesco Holiday Sales Won't Deliver Any Respite
This article is for subscribers only.
Tesco Plc Chief Executive Officer Dave Lewis is ending his first full year at the helm with the stock at an 18-year low, and he’s facing a Christmas period that won’t deliver any respite.
Sales over the six-week Christmas period will fall by 3 percent on a like-for-like basis, analysts at UBS estimate. That’s a steeper drop than the 0.5 percent decline analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein foresee for competitor J Sainsbury Plc, and well below the gains achieved by German discounters Aldi and Lidl. Lewis, 50, was hired to revive Britain’s biggest retailer, yet so far it’s proved far from an easy task. Tesco shares have fallen 20 percent this year, heading for a sixth straight annual decline.