More Focus and Retrenchment from Dave Lewis at Tesco

Dave Lewis is continuing with his strategy of focusing Tesco on its core retail activities with a series of business disposals.

Today Tesco have announced the sale of Dobbies Garden Centres for £217million.

Last week Tesco announced that it had sold the Giraffe chain of family restaurants as well as its 95% shareholding in Turkish grocery business Kipa.

Investment analysts had long questioned the strategic logic of Tesco investing in garden centres and family restaurants, suggesting that it was an inappropriate strategy of related diversification.

These are just three examples of Dave Lewis managing Tesco's business portfolio to bring much greater focus to the group and to realise cash for non-core assets.

Lewis is also taking steps to reduce the operating costs of the key UK supermarket business. The Guardian reports today that another series of Tesco superstores are abandoning 24-hour opening.