BBC Breakfast was focused on huge breaking news this morning as Dave Lewis announced he would be stepping down as the boss of Tesco next year. The businessman was largely known as “the bloke who saved Tesco”, but he will leave the company in 2020.
Dan Walker and Louise Minchin welcomed business reporter Ben Thompson on to the sofa to discuss the huge news and the former took the opportunity to pun about the news.
Welcoming Ben in to the studio, he said: “We’ve been getting response to the big news of the day that Tesco’s boss is checking out.
“Ben Thompson, we’ve been talking about this for the last hour, hour and a half… did you write that?”
The business reporter laughed: “I wrote it in a headline earlier and hearing you say it, it’s too far.”
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Dan joked: “I saw your face when I said that and you thought, ‘Oh terrible.’
“I’d like to apologise for all that.”
The team then got on with dissecting the news of the day, following on from Tesco’s big statement today.
Chairman of the company, John Allan, said he had accepted Dave’s decision “with regret”.
Dave said in his statement: “My decision to step down as group CEO is a personal one.
“I believe that the tenure of the CEO should be a finite one and that now is the right time to pass the baton.
“Our turnaround is complete, we have delivered all the metrics we set for ourselves.”
John added: “Dave has done an outstanding job in rebuilding Tesco since 2014 and he continues to have unwavering support from the board.
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“Some time ago, however, he indicated to me that he was considering the best time to hand over to a successor.”
The news came as Tesco announced a 6.7 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £494 million for the last six months.
However, like-for-like sales in the United Kingdom fell by 0.3 per cent over the half-year period.
It is believed the drop comes from a combination of last year’s super summer with the World Cup, hot weather and Meghan Markle’s wedding to Prince Harry.
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ITV rival Piers Morgan also called out the BBC’s offering, believing it was too “soft”.
BBC Breakfast airs weekdays on BBC at 6am.
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