In The News

David Sables, CEO, and the Sentinel Team appear regularly on and in various media, commentating and giving insight on industry issues. David is a regular columnist within ‘the Grocer’ magazine, as well as being a contributor to Forbes.

For press enquiries, please contact our UK office. call: +44 (0) 1753 867979 or email press@sentinelmc.com

Tesco calls in consultants to oversee drastic range review

By The Grocer News Team / February 02, 2015

Decisions over the future of thousands of lines at Tesco are being left in the hands of management consultants, suppliers warned this week. The Grocer can reveal the UK's biggest retailer has tasked Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to conduct a range review across 40 categories, with a view to reducing its SKU count by up to a third, with Tesco set to press the 'reset' button at the end of... Read More

Panorama - Trouble at Tesco

By David Sables / January 19, 2015

Tesco is losing customers, its share price is down and its profits have taken a tumble. As it faces a criminal investigation over its accounting practices, Kamal Ahmed investigates what's really gone wrong inside Tesco. Watch On iPlayer Read More

Tesco accused of 'blunderbuss' approach in scrapping supplier fees

By Gemma McKenna / December 18, 2014

Tesco’s move to scrap supplier fees and instead focus on getting the lowest prices upfront has been greeted with scepticism by leading consultants who describe is as “old-fashioned” and taking a “blunderbuss approach”. Read More Read More

Premier is following a well-established supermarket playbook

By Alec Mattinson & Adam Leyland / December 05, 2014

The real surprise about Premier Foods’ demands for payment from suppliers is not that the company is doing it, but that it’s suddenly in the spotlight. Newsnight covered it last night. The Daily Wail shrilled: “Mr Kipling’s exceedingly murky plot to blackmail suppliers.” And Radio 4’s Today programme saw John Humphrys debate the ethics with shadow business minister Toby Perkins. But the practice is nothing new. It was first revealed... Read More

GSCOP compliance is not under control within our system

By David Sables / December 02, 2014

The Tesco debacle has really brought supplier treatment to the top of the agenda. Me, I've always helped suppliers learn how to deal with it in a savvy yet strategically sound way rather than grumble. If you want to play where the big rewards are then learn how to do it and don't moan if you get it wrong and get burnt. I do believe, though, that supplier treatment and... Read More

Podcast - Tesco Trouble at the Top

By David Sables / November 13, 2014

Tesco is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office over an alleged black hole in its accounts. Simon Cox tells the story of Tesco's biggest crisis to date. Download Podcast (right click & "save target as / link as") Read More

How to Sell - Help the big four to reduce their stock and create differentiation

By David Sables / November 01, 2014

Coverage of the Tesco scandal has oscillated between accounting misdemeanour and supplier treatment. Either way, this story is of great interest and distaste to the British public. A public whose spending loyalties the retailers compete for - and now a public with another reason to turn away from big retailers. As well as being uncompetitive, undifferentiated and financially challenged, the retailers are so mean! . The Tesco scandal is all... Read More

TescoGate - Supermarket is rudderless and 'fighting fires' in wake of suspensions

By Gemma McKenna / October 23, 2014

The suspension of Dan Jago, head of wine, and seven other directors at Tesco has left the retailer rudderless and “fighting fires” as it heads into Christmas and the busiest trading period of the year. Read More Read More

The hidden world of supplying a supermarket

By BBC News / October 22, 2014

Stack it and sell it. What could be more simple when it comes to the world of the supermarkets? But in this multi billion pound industry, there's a complex relationship between the retailers and the companies who supply the many products they sell. The accounting scandal at Tesco brought the issue into the limelight, and highlighted just how reliant it, and the other big supermarkets, are on supplier income. Read... Read More

Tesco's fall from grace compounded by accounting error

By Christ Warmoll / October 17, 2014

TESCO has come a long way since its modest birth in 1919 on a wind-swept Homerton market stall deep in the heart of London's East End. So too has its share price. But of late not in a way that has mirrored the upward trajectory of founder Jack Cohen's old - and rapidly gentrifying - Hackney neighbourhood. Read More Read More