Tesco plans new brands for aspirational shoppers

Tesco, the world's No.3 retailer, plans to create new brands to spruce up its product ranges and appeal to increasingly aspirational shoppers across the world, its new chief executive told Reuters.
Phil Clarke, outlining his strategy for the British supermarket group, also said Tesco would be online in all 15 of its markets this decade and, while it would continue to expand rapidly in its main British market, it would likely allocate a growing proportion of resources to its overseas businesses.
Clarke's new seven-point strategy, published on May 10, is broadly similar to a five-point plan drawn up by long-serving predecessor Terry Leahy, whom he succeeded in March.
A pledge to grow Tesco's British business, for example, was the same, while a target to be outstanding overseas is a step up from the goal to be successful.
"It is a change of gear, not a change of direction," said Clarke, who will present the strategy to 5,000 managers in 21 meetings across the world over the next 12 weeks.
New, however, is the goal to create "highly valued brands."
Clarke said this partly referred to the group's own-brand foods ranges, from "Value" at the cheapest end to "Finest" at the most expensive.
But it was also about developing new brands for shoppers who do not necessarily want to have the name of a supermarket emblazoned across the products they buy.
"As people develop their higher levels of disposable income, they want to treat themselves. They do not want to just buy Tesco Value shower gel. They want to have something sat in their bathroom that looks like it is a brand. So you create brands," Clarke said in an interview at Tesco's headquarters in an industrial park just north of London.
Tesco has come under fire from critics for a lacklustre product range in general merchandise and a lack of innovation, and Clarke conceded last month its performance in non-food ranges was below par over Christmas.
The group has already built up international brands like F+F in clothing and Technika in consumer electricals.