Retailing Services
All our customers are different, and their needs are continually changing. That’s why we continue to offer more than one way to shop.
Tesco Personal Finance (TPF)
Tesco Personal Finance recently celebrated its eleventh anniversary and over the last decade it has grown to be the UK’s most successful supermarket bank. Customers have a choice of 28 products ranging from savings accounts and credit cards to car and travel insurance.
In July 2008 we announced that we had reached an agreement with RBS to buy its fifty percent shareholding in TPF. RBS had been a good partner, and through them we learnt a lot about how to manage a financial services business. The joint venture structure was right for TPF but it had reached a size where Tesco ownership was the most sensible way to run and grow the business going forward.
In December we completed the acquisition of the remaining 50% of TPF from Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBSG ). This was an important move for Tesco, allowing us to build on the success of TPF and eventually offer customers the products you would expect from a full-service retail bank. This will mean growing our existing customer base across the 28 simple products we offer from home insurance to credit cards, but also attracting new customers at a time when many have lost trust in their high street bank.
All our current financial products are available to buy online and at present over 50% of our customers choose to buy this way. However, in the same way as customers value the service offered by our telecoms centres, we understand that many would like to discuss their financial needs with someone knowledgeable. We plan to increase our presence for TPF by extending the trial of our in-store branches which offer customers the opportunity to talk to our specially trained finance advisors in a convenient location and have recently opened six more.
We have also officially opened the new TPF headquarters at Haymarket in Edinburgh. Tesco Personal Finance has committed to establishing and building its bank from Edinburgh and around 250 members of staff have already relocated from the South Gyle, while the business expects to recruit an additional 200 over the next 12 months.
Tesco.com
Since launching in 2000, Tesco.com has gone from strength to strength, with over 1 million active customers now choosing to buy online. Shopping for groceries online has been a revolution for people leading busy lives and those without access to transport.
In the last year we have introduced bag-less deliveries, an offer which 40% of our customers now choose, helping our customers to reduce their overall single-bag use in stores and online by a staggering trhee billion carrier bags since Green Clubcard Points were launched in August 2006.
Our Tesco.com model also operates in the Republic of Ireland and South Korea. In Ireland the service now covers over 80% of the country and we have over 280,000 registered customers. In South Korea we now have over 950,000 registered customers and we have increased the number of products available through the service to 22,200 - a 30% wider range than last year.
Tesco Telecoms
Tesco Telecoms offers simple, straightforward telecoms services with great value tariffs. Customers can benefit from our mobile network, home phone service, internet access and an internet phone service. Tesco Telecoms also offers a wide range of telecoms products in store and online.
Our mobile network, Tesco Mobile, was launched in 2003 as a joint venture with O2. It is currently the fastest growing mobile networks and was ranked as the number one network for customer service by Which? magazine in 2009. It offers fantastic value tariffs such as triple your credit with its pays as you go tariff and quadruple flexible credit with its pay monthly offers. Customers can choose SIM only or select a new handset from a comprehensive choice instore and online.
