How refreshing to see somebody point out the exodus of staff from Tesco鈥檚 property division at last. I spent several years as a consultant for Tesco, working almost exclusively on its developments, and saw a number of changes over the years. In the past ten years it became more 鈥渞uthlessly commercial鈥�, to quote a former project manager.

Your article states that a number of were rumoured to be considering leaving. Actually, most of the project managers with construction backgrounds have gone in the past four years 鈥� several defected to John Lewis and Waitrose.

The project managers left are either seconded from contractors or are agency staff, former store managers, buyers or retail planners. Few of them understand the complexities of construction and so rely on contractors and consultants to guide them. In addition, there is pressure to avoid variations on projects as even minor additional costs have to be board-approved.

I would urge anybody to avoid working on Tesco projects or in its property division.

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