Lewis Leaving Tesco, Says Turnaround Is Complete

Tesco CEO Dave Lewis has announced he will be departing the U.K.’s largest grocery store chain next summer, citing personal reasons for the departure, but also stating that the “turnaround is complete.”

Lewis is of course referring to the turnaround he began in 2014 after an accounting scandal caused a dramatic drop in the stock. Shares hit a low of £164 at the time, and closed Wednesday at £240. While that is an improvement it is also well off the 2007 high near £500.

The strategy implemented by Lewis is helping the company improve its sales and profits, as evidenced by the half year financials also released on Wednesday, which showed Tesco’s pretax profit increased by 6.7% in the first half of 2019. Investors were also pleased by news from the Board of Directors as they increased the dividend by 58.7%.

Lewis was the first Tesco outsider to hold the position of CEO, and will be replaced by another Tesco outsider. The company has already announced that Ken Murphy, a former executive at Walgreen Boots Alliance, will be taking the helm at Tesco when Lewis departs.

Replacing Lewis won’t be an easy task as he has been responsible for improving Tesco’s relationships with its suppliers, lowering prices for consumers, improving store standards, and of course improving profits. He has also cut jobs, including 4,500 that were slashed just this past August.

Tesco’s stock has shown improvement from all the changes and trades 26.3% higher since the start of the year.