Core Purpose and Values

Serving our customers, communities and planet a little better every day means we always keep customers at the heart of what we do, while also reflecting our responsibilities to the communities we serve and to society more broadly.

Everything we do begins and ends with our customers. By understanding our customers, we can anticipate and respond to their needs and expectations.

As a Group we serve a wide range of different customers, in different settings, from retail customers through to banking, mobile, Booker’s wholesale customers, and dunnhumby’s retailer and supplier clients.

The role we play in the thousands of communities we serve is vital – whether it’s creating good jobs, supporting local suppliers and producers, or helping local causes through our community programmes.

Our commitment to sustainability is core to our business. It drives our work across our own operations and our supply chain to reduce our environmental impact and support a healthier way of living.

No one tries harder for customers

• Understand customers
• Be first to meet their needs
• Act responsibly for our communities

Understanding people – customers, colleagues, communities – and what matters to them, and then trying to make those things better, is at the heart of Tesco. It’s about listening to people and talking to them using all the tools at our disposal – from Clubcard data to social media – and then acting by changing and innovating to meet their needs.

We treat people how they want to be treated

• Work as a team
• Trust and respect each other
• Listen, support and say thank you
• Share knowledge and experience

We know that looking after our colleagues in a culture of trust and respect is essential to the success of Tesco. Where colleagues feel recognised and rewarded for the work they do together, where they have the opportunity to get on and where they are supported in their development as they move through their careers in the business – they in turn try their hardest for customers.

Every little help makes a big difference

• Helping to reduce food waste globally and ensuring surplus food goes to those in need
• Making it easier to live more healthily
• Sourcing great quality, affordable and sustainable products
• Making a positive contribution to the communities where we operate.

Every little help makes a big difference – it’s the value we live by to ensure we serve our customers, colleagues and their communities a little better every day. It really captures how, when we add up all the small things we do, Tesco can make a big difference to the issues customers, colleagues, communities and wider society care about.

It covers the little things we do every day as well as linking these things together to contribute to the bigger global initiatives in which we are involved. It helps us take the right actions to restore trust and transparency in our business.

Since we first introduced our Tesco Values more than a decade ago, they have become a vital part of our culture – and an essential underpinning of our growth and success. They ensure that every person at Tesco understands what is important – about how we work together as a team and how customers are at the centre of what we do. They are universal values, which have helped guide our people as Tesco has grown into new markets and new countries.