Meet Tesco’s new games boss

Sarah Kaye has been waiting to take the games hot seat at Tesco for over six months. She was recruited from Activision in June last year to eventually succeed former games chief John Stanhope.

Stanhope is part of Tesco’s director development programme and as a result was recently tasked with leading the supermarket’s toy department.

Kaye is now focused on picking up where Stanhope left off, and is reaching out to publishers to help make Tesco a more credible games force: Our business is going to develop by building a more credible range and giving people a reason to come to Tesco that isn’t all about price. I think we’re getting there. The market is in a challenging place and I feel we are better positioned than most retailers to add value to the market, rather than simply share shift.

With recent innovations such as Move and Kinect, the industry has a broader appeal than ever before. The key challenge we all face is how we engage more mainstream consumers.

"My message to publishers is: come to us with solutions about how you want Tesco to deliver your message. You are the experts about your products. What you will get from Tesco is a real appetite to work with you to market that message to a new audience.” Under Stanhope Tesco has doubled its share in games.

But entertainment boss Rob Salter feels there’s still more to grow and add.

We’ve doubled our position but I think we are only half way to where we could be,” he says. I think that if we get that growth then it will be additive to the market.”

To read MCV’s full interview with Rob Salter, head over to MCV’s Features section.