Tesco expands buying team

Tesco has increased the size of its games buying team from six to nine over the past year, with a tenth member to follow.

The news comes as the supermarket doubled its market share in software and hardware year-on-year.

Tesco senior buying manager for games John Stanhope told MCV: While it’s been a tougher environment to sell software, we’ve grown very well in the marketplace.

And we’ve invested quite heavily in resources – we’ve got a new team together, we’ve got more space, and we are moving into pre-owned games this year. A lot of it is investment in people space, and we are working that market this year.”

New team member Sarah Kaye has been appointed as games buying manager. She joins Tesco from Activision, where she worked as grocery channel manager.

Nazuk Ahuja has replaced Jean Marie as games buying administrator, while Paul Bangs moves from Comet to Tesco as a games buyer. Internally, Lian Diong has been promoted to assistant buyer following a stint as merchandise planner in Tesco’s electrical division.

The newcomers join category director for home entertainment Rob Salter, senior games buying manager John Stanhope, games buying manager Joanna Hunt, games buyer Mark Burgess and assistant games buyer Mike Fethers.

Previous buying manager Stephen Worden has left.
Stanhope added: We are recruiting for one more buyer to complete our team.”

The team’s expansion is a bid to boost the firm’s video games offering, and follows news that Tesco has opened 197 stores over the past 12 months. This increases the supermarket’s store count from 2,282 to 2,479.