INTERVIEW: JOHN STANHOPE, ROB SALTER, TESCO Every little helps
Over the past 18 months Tesco has transformed itself into one of the UK’s most important video game retailers. Christopher Dring meets entertainment boss Rob Salter and games chief John Stanhope to learn about the small-but-significant changes that are helping the supermarket claim one fifth of the UK software market
WHEN ROB SALTER joined Tesco in 2008 he was in for a shock. The firm’s new entertainment category director expected Tesco – with its 2,500 UK shops and millions of customers – to be one of the most desirable retailers out there. But for the games industry, that just wasn’t the case.
“My first meetings with the video game suppliers were challenging,” remembers Salter.
“What surprised me was the extent to which they were disappointed in us. They said ‘You are not really a priority’, which is unusual for Tesco. “The manufacturers had been burnt. They invested in things and experimented with Tesco to find nothing had really happened.” Back in 2008 Tesco was a tiny player in games. And although the supermarket behemoth promised
The share of the games software market Tesco hopes to have in the next two years
20%
5,008 61
The number of stores Tesco has worldwide
The number of Tescos that accept video game trade-ins
time and time again it would turn things around, it never did. They were, as MCVonce said, ‘a missed opportunity’ for video games retail.
BACK IN THE GAME Salter had to make changes, bring in someone who could deliver on their promises, double the size of the games team and turn Tesco into a retailer that suppliers wanted to be involved with. So he hired former EUK games chief John Stanhope. Salter added: “When John arrived we said to the industry we were going to take our games software share from X to Y, and we then spent the next two years getting on and delivering on those things. “John has transformed our relationship with suppliers and we have put ourselves way up the pecking order with them. We have a long way to go, but it’s been a pretty decent couple of years.” Stanhope, now Tesco’s senior buying manager for games, adds: “We weren’t delivering what we felt we should in the games market and over the last two years we’ve certainly addressed that. We have invested heavily in people and in the in-store experience, and I think we now have a proposition that is credible in games.”
GIVING US EXTRA Tesco’s new look games team, featuring the likes of Joanna Hunt, Mark Burgess, Sarah Kaye and Paul Bangs, have fought and
scrapped for every inch of floor space and every penny of marketing to ensure Tesco will never again be written off by publishers. And combined with some aggressive movements on price, the retailer has doubled its share of the market. Salter says: “John and I came up with a bold plan for games, and our illustrious leader said: ‘Good, now where’s the plan that is twice as big?’ “Tesco is a great environment in challenging you to be ambitious. We have got more space for gaming and had more marketing resource, too. “Every week there is a massive bun fight of who is going to get that resource. There is a finite amount of resources and we have to bid for it. And this is what we try to impress on our suppliers – when we are not negotiating with them, we
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October 22nd 2010
www.mcvuk.com
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