Tesco’s new management team could be preparing the sale of the Dobbies Garden Centres chain it bought in 2007.
The Scottish-based chain could be sold off as part of efforts by the management, led by Dave Lewis, to focus on the retailer’s core operations.
The garden centre business, bought for £156m in 2007, reported a £48m loss last year after booking £54.4m in impairments on assets, including stores.
Speculation about the sale of the garden centres, along with other non-core operations such as the Harris + Hoole coffee chain, has been rife since Lewis took over as chief executive in 2014 and warned the retailer was overestimating its revenue.
Tesco would not comment on reports that investment bankers at Greenhill had been appointed to seek out buyers for the chain just days before Lewis is due to present the grocer’s full-year results.
Lewis is expected to report the first quarter of underlying sales growth for more than three years on Wednesday, in a move that is expected to ease some of the pressure he faces to demonstrate results from his turnaround strategy.
He has sold off Tesco’s South Korean chain for £4bn to cut debt but will now face questions about operations such as Dobbies and Harris + Hoole.
One of the sales he had considered to cut the retailers’ debt, the loyalty card data business Dunnhumby, was called off in October last year. At the time Lewis also said he wanted to “draw a line” under talk of major restructuring and the company had decided not to offload any other major assets, such as retail operations in eastern Europe or Thailand.
According to Sky News, he will now sell Dobbies, Harris + Hoole and the restaurant chain Giraffe.
