Selling Assets Is One Thing, But Can Tesco Make Profits From What’s Left?

As the makeover of sagging U.K. grocery chain Tesco gets underway in earnest, partly through refocusing on price and customer service and partly through divestiture, analysts wonder whether CEO Dave Lewis can get the company’s “disparate parts” humming along together profitably. The sale of the South Korean Homeplus division and the Dunnhumby data analysis unit will bring in much-needed cash, though maybe not as much as hoped. But what about the other tiles in the Tesco mosaic? Should the coffee shop chain Harris + Hoole be renamed Tesco Coffee? Does Tesco really need a banking arm or a mobile phone operator? With Tesco stock 20 percent lower than when he took over, Lewis needs to clearly communicate to investors – not what else he plans to sell – but how he’ll get what’s left to operate successfully together.