Supply Chain

Applications for the Supply Chain graduate programme are now closed.

At Tesco we call our Supply Chain function - Store Ordering. Our purpose is to drive continuous improvements in availability for our customers; reducing stock holding in our depots; and reducing waste in our stores. This involves extensive interaction with a variety of business areas including Stores, Commercial, Distribution and Support Office as well as our Suppliers.

On this programme you’ll begin with a 3 week overview of Store Ordering to understand what we do. In order to help you see how fundamental stores and distribution are to our business, you’ll then get to complete a 4 week placement in Stores, followed by a 4 week placement in Distribution. Next you’ll experience 3 placements in Food Supply & Planning, Replenishment and Research & Development respectively.

During the placements you’ll work on projects aimed at improving availability for our customers, reducing waste for our Stores or reducing stock holding for our Depots. These improvements can be made in a variety of ways.

All three placements will be challenging and test your leadership skills to the limit. That’s why you’ll need to be very proactive and always look to improve what we do and how we do it. With lots of hands-on experience and training, you’ll always have the opportunity to add real value to our business.

During each project you will have a Manager who supports and coaches you, plus a buddy from the department to help you settle in to the team.

One of our current Graduates has recently worked on a project aimed at improving stores evening availability of key product lines that need to always be kept on our shelves. The project involved analysing competitor data, looking at how we currently manage these products, understanding the root cause of any gaps, as well as recommending solutions for both systems enhancements and store routines.

After a year of working on various exciting projects and successfully completing the programme you’ll be ready to work in one of our teams.

You could be heading up one of our Food Supply teams ordering food or household products, pet food or health & beauty lines from our suppliers. Working here you’ll ensure that our Distribution centres are carrying the right amount of stock to service our stores at the right time.

As a member of our Replenishment team you could be creating, trialing and launching new & redefined routines to provide stores with the most productive replenishment processes that helps them manage their stock from the backdoor to the shelf. Alternatively, you could be working with suppliers to improve their packaging, making life simpler, better & cheaper for our Distribution Centres, Stores and Customers.

You could join our Activity and Network Planning team and be involved in planning events like Christmas and Easter or taking part in agreeing how and when stock will be delivered to our Distribution Centres and in allocating this stock to our Stores.

As a member of our Systems Research & Development team you would be working on projects aimed at improving Tesco systems & processes, with the aim of delivering better results for our business.

Our aim for Graduates who deliver successful projects during the programme is to promote them into management roles in either Project Management or Operations. If you have the potential to progress further, we’d like to see you progress towards Senior Management roles within 3 - 5 years.

To be a success in Store Ordering you’ll have:

  • At least a 2.1 at degree level in any discipline and a minimum of 240 UCAS points (CCC at A Levels or equivalent qualifications)
  • Highly-effective analytical and decision making skills
  • The ability to embrace change, be adaptable and innovative
  • The personality to gain the hearts and minds of others
  • A strong passion for retail and delivering a great shopping experience for our customers

Find out more from one of our graduates.