Tesco 2009 Annual Report Download - page 23

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21
REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS
Tesco PLC Annual Report and Financial Statements 2009
tesco.com
is the world’s most successful
online grocery retailer.
Developing Retailing Services has been part of our strategy for over
a decade – with the aim of bringing value and simplicity to customers
through services such as telecoms and financial products. After ten
years of success, we have given it a renewed focus and in July we
announced that Andrew Higginson would relinquish his role as Group
Finance Director to take on the role of Chief Executive of Retailing
Services. He has assembled an experienced team to really drive
forward this part of the strategy, which we believe has the potential
to deliver £1 billion of annual profit in the next few years.
The aim is to develop our services business to offer customers the
same convenience we have brought to food shopping, to all the other
products and services we offer. Our dotcom grocery business and now
our online non-food offer, Tesco Direct, have already added more
convenient options for customers to shop – particularly those with
very busy lives or limited access to transport. The growing power of
the internet means increasingly that people look to this channel to
buy everyday services and goods.
However, many people still like the reassurance of being able to talk
to someone knowledgeable about the products and services they buy.
We believe in offering customers the choice – to shop in the way which
most suits their needs whether that is online, in store or by phone.
That is why we now have 40 phone shops in our stores, and we plan
to have around 100 open by the end of this year. This means more
customers than ever can access our popular telecoms offer. We remain
one of the fastest growing providers for pre-pay mobiles and we are
now attracting more customers through our new contract mobile deals.
In December we completed the acquisition of the remaining 50%
of TPF from Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBSG). This was an
important move for Tesco, allowing us to build on the success of TPF
and eventually offer customers the products you would expect from
a full-service retail bank. This will mean growing our existing customer
base across the 28 simple products we offer from home insurance to
credit cards, but also attracting new customers at a time when many
have lost trust in their high street bank.
All our current financial products are available to buy online and at
present over 50% of our customers choose to buy this way. However,
in the same way as customers value the service offered by our telecoms
centres, we understand that many would like to discuss their financial
needs with someone knowledgeable. We plan to increase our presence
for TPF by extending the trial of our in-store branches which offer
customers the opportunity to talk to our specially trained finance
advisors in a convenient location.
Retailing Services
It has been a big year for Retailing Services, which includes our
online shopping channels, tesco.com and Tesco Direct; Telecoms;
Tesco Personal Finance (TPF) and dunnhumby – our consumer
research business.
100,000
new savings account customers.