Grocery Guru Ep 12: Tesco Christmas Q3 Results

Join Andrew Grant and Darren A. Smith in the twelfth episode of Grocery Guru: Tesco Christmas Q3 Results - 80% of sales in large stores are through Clubcard.

You Can Read the Full Tesco Christmas Results Episode Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

Welcome to week 12 with The Grocery Group. It is Andrew Grant. Andrew, hello. How are you doing?

Andrew Grant:

Darren, good to see you again. How are you?

Darren A. Smith:

Hey, I'm all right. I'm all right. Lockdown, blah, vaccination, blah. We're not going to talk about any of that, are we?

Andrew Grant:

No. No. It's still the post-Christmas results season, and I thought today ... I think it was yesterday, Tesco's Christmas results statement was released. All very good stuff. Probably exactly what you would have expected. 8% like-for-like growth. People piling into Finest Christmas products. Lots and lots of online orders. So, I think the stuff we talked about last week in regard to Morrisons and Sainsbury's. So yeah, a very, very good festive season for Tesco, but-

Darren A. Smith:

You're talking about the Q3 statement for Christmas, aren't you, the results for Tesco Group?

Tesco Christmas Q3 Results

 

Andrew Grant:

That's it. Yeah.

Darren A. Smith:

All right. All right.

Andrew Grant:

Inside that statement, not particularly hidden, but towards the end of that statement was a fascinating fact. They talked about the ... And it's very rare; actually, retailers disclose their loyalty information because it's pretty sensitive stuff. So quite surprised that Ken Murphy actually said that in large stores, 80% of their sales at Christmas were Clubcard sales linked to people swiping their Clubcard at the checkout. That's phenomenal.

Darren A. Smith:

That is high. So 8 in 10 pounds that are spent in Tesco is by someone who has a Clubcard, who's swiped.

Andrew Grant:

In their larger stores, which you can understand. Because obviously in the Expresses, they're much more transitory.

Darren A. Smith:

Yes.

Andrew Grant:

People dining in for a sandwich or a bottle of water are less likely either to have a Clubcard or to swipe it. But in their bigger stores, which is obviously the vast bulk of their volume, to have 8 out of 10 customers loyal, if you like. Loyal Clubcard shoppers. And what do you think's driven that? I don't think it was just the Christmas effect. I think it was something else.

Darren A. Smith:

What's driven that?

Andrew Grant:

I don't know if you're a Tesco shopper if you're a regular Tesco shopper. You should have noticed.

Darren A. Smith:

We're more online, but then it still happens there. So I think because I've had a look at the Q3 statements. I knew what you were going to talk about. I think you're going to say it's promotions.

Andrew Grant:

Yeah. I think they'd been incredibly clever. I mean, most retailers with their loyalty promotions, they're sort of second-best. They're sort of add-ons and throw-ins. "Oh, use your loyalty card and get a minor promotion." What Tesco, I think, have done very, very cleverly is taken their mainstream, high-hitting promotions and made them Clubcard-only. I mean, there are some fantastic Clubcard-only offers out there. And if you haven't got a Clubcard, you're wandering around a Tesco thinking, "I'm missing out on some fantastic deals here." So probably, again, data they won't share. They probably recruited a whole army of new Clubcard customers since they've started those promotions.

Darren A. Smith:

Well, I read the Q3 statement because I knew you were going to ask about it, and one of the things I read was that the ... Let's have a look. Clubcard penetration has gone up 10 points to over 80%, which ties in with what you said, and there are 2 million more active users. Wow.

Andrew Grant:

Ah, I missed that bit. I should have read a bit more closely. Right. So another-

Darren A. Smith:

I mean, that's truly amazing.

Andrew Grant:

Absolutely. I mean,