Tesco Ireland’s new chief executive, Natasha Adams, is standing in the fresh produce section of the group’s brand new store in Dublin’s South Lotts Road near Ringsend, which opened on Tuesday.
The new South Lotts convenience store, a stone’s throw from Google, is Tesco’s 154th in the Irish market, which it joined 25 years ago when it bought Quinnsworth. Adams, London-reared but Irish born , has been sent back to her home turf by the Tesco group’s Cork-born chief executive, Ken Murphy, to steer it through the inflation crisis and also to oversee its expansion drive.
Adams took up her position only in April, replacing Kari Daniels, a low-profile executive who ran Tesco Ireland from 2018 but left the business earlier this year, months after Tesco’s board performed a “deep dive” into its Irish operation. It also includes another former Tesco Ireland chief executive, Englishman Andrew Yaxley, who ran the business here from 2015 until Daniels took over in 2018. He now runs Tesco’s Booker wholesale business.
She acknowledges that the businesses in Tesco’s supply chain are also under pressure on costs, and will want to pass them on. But for customers, Tesco will aim to keep prices “as low as they can possibly be”. In January, the company introduced into the Irish market its “Aldi price match” promise from Britain, where it vows to match its rival’s prices on about 250 core grocery items. Adams may be reluctant to declare a price war on Tesco’s rivals in Ireland, but it isn’t necessarily shying away from one either.
She joined Tesco’s management training programme and started out as a trainer, before becoming personnel manager at a number of stores. Progressing through the ranks in human resources, as well as a number of senior operational roles, she emerged publicly as a senior figure in the group in 2018 when she took over as chief people officer.