Former Tesco CMO May Bid for dunnhumby

Tim Mason, who as Chief Marketing Officer of Tesco introduced the firm's Clubcard, is working with private equity group BC Partners to join those bidding for the retailer's shopper data firm dunnhumby, according to a report by Sky News.

The dunnhumby sale is part of Tesco's business overhaul, following the retailer's £263m profit misstatement last year, and a pre-tax annual loss of £6.4bn. Among those rumoured to be interesting in bidding are dunnhumby founders Edwina Dunn and Clive Humby; venture capital firm TPG; marcoms giant WPP; Nielsen; former Tesco executive and Dixons boss John Browett; and Google. Analysts initially suggested a price tag of around £2bn, but following the recent dissolution of the firm's JV with US supermarket chain Kroger, some have speculated that this figure may have halved.

dunnhumby, which first started working with Tesco in 1995, analyses till data captured through the Tesco Clubcard to access the shopping behaviour, purchasing patterns, and trends of millions of households worldwide. While serving as Tesco's CMO, Mason (pictured) oversaw dunnhumby's customer insight work. He went on to lead US subsidiary <6968.>Fresh & Easy, but left in 2012 after the firm failed to break into the US market. At the time, he is said to have walked away from the company after more than 30 years, with a c.£5.7m pay-off, and a pension pot of around £9m.

The rumour about Mason's bid with BC Partners comes a day before Tesco's first annual shareholder meeting since news of the company's financial crisis broke last year. Sky News said that Tesco and BC Partners had declined to comment.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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