Tesco to announce £6.38 billion of losses - Another costly defiance of God

In November 2011 Tesco announced that after supporting the Cancer Research ‘Race for Life’ charity, for more than a decade, it was now withdrawing its support. Shortly after making this announcement, the reason became clear. Tesco was now going to become a headline sponsor of Pride London, a sodomite festival, to the tune of £30,000 per year. Tesco said it would host Pride London’s family area, which would provide entertainment and activities for younger children.

Tesco is another example of the cost that defying God can bring. The troubles which have come upon this company, by all accounts, have read like a horror story. Tesco has lurched from one crisis to another, since that decision.

There has been an accounting scandal that cost many senior staff their jobs. There is currently a Serious Fraud Office inquiry into allegations it misled shareholders and the City by overstating profits by £263million last year. The company have suffered a plummeting share price. Falling sales and lost consumer confidence have resulted as shoppers turn to discount retailers. 

Tesco is being forced to cancel the building of more than 100 stores and close other loss making ones. It has marked down the value of the land and is seeking to sell it off for other purposes such as housing. The collapse in the value of its land bank is expected to equate to a write-down in the value of as much as £4billion.

The staff pension scheme is predicted to show its deficit to have jumped to nearly £5 billion, which will require an injection of about £250 million into the scheme each year, placing more stress on the company’s already stretched finances. Tesco is also under investigation by the supermarket ombudsman over allegations that it badly treated suppliers in the past.

To cap it all the company has reported a pre-tax loss of £6.38 billion, worse than the estimated £3-5 billion, industry experts had predicted. Such a loss would be the biggest in its almost one hundred year history. That £30,000 outlay on Pride London in 2011, has cost Tesco many times over. 

Defying God is a costly business. We are reminded in 1 Samuel 2:30: …for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. The wise man Solomon makes the following telling observation: In the house of the righteous is much treasure: but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble, Proverbs 15:6. Tesco's depleted revenues contain much trouble!