Tesco launches Jack's discount chain

The first two branches of Jack’s, the new discount formula by Tesco, have opened their doors. The English retail giant aims to offer prices that are lower than those at Aldi and Lidl.

25 million euros investment

In the United Kingdom, discounters Aldi and Lidl are rising stars: other supermarket chains see their market share threatened. This is also the case for Tesco, especially now that competitors Sainsbury’s and Asda are planning a merger. The British market leader therefore launches Jack’s, a new supermarket chain, as an answer to the discounters. “We have been thinking about what customers want, and bringing it to them in the most cost-effective, value-orientated way possible. The objective is to be the lowest cost for customers”, CEO Dave Lewis told BBC.
 

Jack’s, named after the Tesco founder Jack Cohen, carries a range of some 1,800 products under Jack’s own label and 800 other brands. By way of comparison, in the UK, an average Tesco supermarket has an offer of roughly 35,000 items, an Aldi store 1,800.
 

The first two stores have opened their doors in Chatteris (near Cambridge) and in Immingham (near Hull), both in the East of England. In the short term ten to fifteen locations are on the planning, five of which are in former buildings of cash & carry chain Metro and two in former Tesco stores.
 

Lewis is not afraid of cannibalising sales from Tesco outlets: on the contrary, he even wants to open a branch on a Tesco Extra hypermarket site in order to compare consumer behavior. The new concept involves an investment of 25 to 30 million euros.