Accounting Scandal Forced Tesco To Improve Its Business, CEO Dave Lewis Says

Tesco’s 2014 accounting scandal was a “catalyst” that drove the company to improve its business operations much faster than how it would have otherwise happened, according to CEO Dave Lewis. Speaking at the Marketing Society’s 2016 lecture, Lewis claimed that without the scandal happening, the retailer may have just kept at its “path of slow decay.” Tesco was once a popular market leader, with its revenue performance and market share peaking in 2007, accounting for 31.8 percent of the UK grocery market. Profits and market share began declining in 2012, during the term of former CEO Philip Clarke.