Tesco brings in new chief for data-driven revenue boost

Tesco is planning to ramp up its data and personalisation operations to create new company-wide revenue streams, with group customer and digital director Becky Brock – who joins this week – leading the charge.

Her arrival comes nearly a year after Tesco scrapped the chief customer officer role following the departure of Alessandra Bellini and merged the customer and product teams under the leadership of chief commercial officer Ashwin Prasad.

Brock, who has more than 20 years’ experience, started her career as a graduate trainee at Unilever in 2001, eventually taking on the role of European brand development manager. In 2006, she switched to The Edrington Group, the company behind The Famous Grouse and The Macallan, as global marketing manager.

She then held senior marketing roles at the then Homebase owner Home Retail Group and Outdoor & Cycle Concepts before spending nearly four years at John Lewis, first as marketing director and then as transformation director, responsible for transforming customer data and martech.

In 2020, Brock joined Costa Coffee as commercial and customer director UK&I and was promoted to global commercial, marketing and innovation director in January 2023. She resigned in June after landing the Tesco job.

At the time, she wrote on LinkedIn: “I’m delighted to announce that I’m going to be joining Tesco to head up marketing and drive forward digital and personalisation priorities across the business. It’s a hugely exciting opportunity to be a part of their next growth chapter.

“I want to thank my amazing team at Costa Coffee. Together we have delivered transformational change in both the commercial and brand despite the many curve balls ie pandemics, unprecedented inflation….I am so proud of the culture we have created where individuals could thrive and deliver beyond what they thought was possible.”

In her new role, Brock will lead the customer, loyalty, digital, insight strategy and report to group chief commercial officer Prasad, who insists that Tesco will benefit hugely from Brock’s “energetic style and collaborative approach, alongside her digital and personalisation experience”.