Support the customers

There are many other establishments up and coming within the industry. Stores such as Liddles, which is a cheaper German store is now coming up within the market, as it is cheaper to buy bulk there and many people are buying there as it can be cheaper than other leading supermarkets. There are other smaller supermarkets up and coming, which consist of more convenience stores such as Costcutter and Londis. Because these are smaller they charge more for products, but are becoming very popular with littler towns.

Tesco’s prices are low and very competitive with other cheaper stores, such as Liddles, which is a German owned hard discounter. It has a wide range of food and always has the shelves stocked, and food ready to buy. Although Tesco is a superstore it still has everything that M&S offers. Tesco offer food, clothing, home ware and insurance. Due to this it carries over 20% of the market share. Tesco last year had a massive turnover of about i?? 35 billion. It has been in papers recently that Tesco are now the cheapest superstore, overtaking Asda. There are 1, 879 stores open in the UK.

Tesco have many other outlets such as Tesco Extra, Express and Metro. These all ensure that customers have a good shopping experience. Recently the self -serve tills have come in. These are very easy and quick to use, which frees up a lot of the queues, which would happen at peak time. Over 40% of Tesco’s customers buy the food, which is priced cheaply. Sainsbury’s again is a superstore, which accounts for about 17% of the market share. It has about 580 stores throughout the UK, and last year had a turnover of about i?? 18 billion. (HRM International Digest)

Marks & Spencer have a food section in their shop, which sells a range of high quality foods. Marks & Spencer aren’t in the biggest players in the whole of the market, but they pretty much own the sector when it comes to high quality foods. Michael Marks and Tom Spencer founded Marks & Spencer in 1884. The first trademark was registered in 1908. Since then the company had expanded largely. Marks & Spencer now has over 400 stores located throughout the UK; this includes their largest store at Marble Arch, London. In addition, the company had 150 stores worldwide including over 130 franchise businesses operating in 30 countries.

Last year Marks & Spencer had a turnover of about i?? 7. 3 billion, which wasn’t as good as normal. This has been reflected in press recently. Marks & Spencer claim the turnover was due to not offering the right products. The market share of Marks & Spencer is now placed at about 10. 2%. The food section, which is 43. 4% of the business held a 3. 2% share when the market grew by 4. 9%, which helped the total sales increase by 5. 7%. The last company I will look at is Waitrose, which has over 165 branches throughout England and Wales and has a turnover of over i??

5 billion. Waitrose has everything that M&S has to offer. Although they do not offer clothing within their Waitrose stores, clothing is still sold under the John Lewis partnership. Last year Waitrose outdid M&S in terms of profits – M&S had a drop in profits of almost one fifth to i?? 618. 5m. M&S stock high quality food products, which accounts for just over 60% of the Waitrose business. In relation to the John Lewis partnership the Waitrose section only accounts for 24% of the business. (HRM International Digest) Asda is the other large Supermarket in the market.

As Tesco just over took Asda in the sales market, it now makes it the second largest food retailer in the UK. Like M&S it also offers food, clothing, insurance and home ware. Again Asda is a large superstore, which accounts for about 11% of the market share. The turnover for Asda last year was about i?? 19 billion. Since they became part of the WAL-MART family they have increased their stores around the UK to over 265 stores. (HRM International Digest. ) In conclusion I have found that there are four main players in the market at this present moment in time, which Tesco is number three and number four is Wal-Mart.

There is always competition to who can become the biggest player of the market, and Tesco has just overtaken Asda as the cheapest Supermarket. A large percentage of the market is taken over by supermarkets, which generates a huge amount of profit. This sector of retail is very important for the countries economy. Qualities Tesco has many graduate opportunities, with it taking on over 130 graduates each month. It has 15 graduate programmes, mainly focusing on four programmes. These include ‘Store Programmes’, which offer opportunities both in-store and in the support office.

This makes the graduate directly involved in the core business. Secondly the ‘Office Programme’, which offers a wider choice of opportunities. Thirdly, the ‘Distribution Programme’ which is where the graduate can be at the forefront of logistics management, and here the employee has to make sure that they get what the customers want to where they want it at the right time. Lastly, the ‘Pharmacy Programme’ is a structured pre-registration programme for pharmacy graduates. It’s, regulated by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.

Tesco has set qualities that they look for when a graduate applies for a graduate job. Tesco’s says they want people ” who can work in a team and are determined to find the best solutions. People who enjoy working under pressure, and who enjoy letting their hair down when the pressure’s off. ” These are the things that Tesco clearly look for when a graduate is applying for a job. The fact that they hold assessment centres shows that they are clearly looking for someone who shows that they have all the qualities. Tesco’s show quite clearly what kind of qualities they are looking for in graduates when applying for a job.

Looking at the job description of a graduate joining the programme, they will be looking at 12-week placements in a number of business areas, where the graduate will get a high degree of responsibility and autonomy. They will also be working in different parts of the business, which includes marketing, IT, Finance, Commercial and media. Again in the job description it makes reference to the type of qualities that the employer wants from the graduate. The job description deduces that the graduate needs to be flexible, and adaptable.

It also states that they will need to be able to live with the fast pace. The application forms support the qualities that the employer wants. Although it is not a full application form, the first step supports the fact that they want their employees to be customer focused, and to be able to work as part of a team as they ask is the applicant prepared to work overtime to support the customers and the rest of the team. To see the basic application form, please see appendix 1. For Marks & Spencer they have two main areas, which they employ graduates for.

These are Selling and HR. Selling is where most of their graduates join and Marks & Spencer offers the chance to be fast-tracked into senior level retail management. If everything goes as planned, within a year the graduate could be running their own small store or managing a department of a larger one. Alternatively, as a HR graduate, they will learn about everything from managing recruitment at peak times (such as Christmas) to carrying out disciplinary procedures. Within the head office, they have opportunities in IT and Food Technology.

If a graduate was to choose to enter this sector then they will get the chance to influence strategies and drive growth across the rest of the business. Marks & Spencer have a list of questions that they put up on their website, where potential employees can answer them to see whether they are appropriate for the company or not. (To see these questions please see appendix 2) Marks & Spencer have these list of questions as a kind of starter application form so that the applicant can see from their answers whether they would be appropriate for the job or not, which would also deter people who are not appropriate from applying.

This company does not actually state the kind of qualities that they are looking for, but looking at the eight questions that they have put on the website, we can see that the company are looking for people who are very assertive and are capable of solving problems by themselves. This is very much the same as the type of qualities that Tesco look for as well. It seems so far that both companies want the same qualities as each other. Both companies as well hold assessment days so that the employers can really see whether the person has the qualities.

Waitrose also has a graduate programme, but comes under the name of John Lewis, which is Waitrose’s father name. The graduate programme looks to recruit up to 40 graduates in the months of April and September. They say that they can offer a wealth of career opportunities and total commitment to investing in the graduate’s personal development. Waitrose state that they are looking for well-rounded individuals with strong analytical and communication skills, along with the drive to become truly exceptional leaders.

In addition they also are looking for decisiveness, a natural ability to lead a team and bring out the best in others, plus a passion for good food and the desire to achieve results in a food retail environment. The programme places the graduate in several food shops to give them broad experience. The recruitment process for the programme will start with pre-screen questions, on-line personality questionnaire, on-line application form, a selection centre, an interview and lastly an offer.

From what can be seen from this so far, the qualities wanted are very similar to the other two companies. Although the only difference is that Waitrose want the quality ‘passion for good food’, where the other two companies do not mention anything similar. Although no actual application forms were available, as all the application dates had already passed but an application form from another retailer, Woolworth’s, which I found asks roughly the same questions as the supermarkets.

These questions include ones, which try to assess if the candidate can work as part of a team, and if they can assess a problem and see the best solution for it. (To see the application form, please see appendix 3) Even though no application form was available however a basic application form was obtained, which can be seen in appendix 4. This application form supports the fact that organisations look for past experience and qualifications.