Worth £31bn, the 12th largest company in the UK and by far the largest retailer in the country, Tesco has left the rest of the high-street pack far behind.

Finance director Andrew Higginson has been at the helm of the supermarket’s finance department since November 1997, and as such has been as responsible as anyone for the company’s demolition of its competition, and expansion into new areas.

In particular, Higginson has driven the company’s joint finance venture, Tesco Personal Finance, chairing the new company in addition to his day job.

A strategy director as well as a finance director at Tesco, Higginson has said of his role: ‘My role is a broad-based business one rather than that of a technical specialist who just keeps the score. Obviously, everyone on the board is involved in strategy, but I’m the one who pulls it all together.’

And Tesco has pulled it all together in some style over recent years. In 2001, its turnover was an impressive £20bn.

But by 2005, it had almost hit £34bn. Profits in 2005 were up 20% on the previous year’s.

How does Tesco and the FD do it, and stay ahead of the competition? Higginson’s answer is this: ‘We stay paranoid! We have to assume that they’re all out to get us, so we try to do a bit better than all of them. I don’t mean to sound glib, but I think our motto, “every little helps”, is the best way to explain it.

‘There’s no eureka factor. We work on much the same economics as everyone else in this business in terms of land, labour and logistics costs, and we’re all selling the same gear. What we do is add a little bit extra: things such as making parking a bit simpler, making sure that our prices are a bit lower and the queues are a bit shorter. All these things combine to create the right kind of shopping experience. This is how we will continue to differentiate ourselves from the competition.’

Higginson has pinpointed international expansion as the ‘largest opportunity’ for the retailer. In five years’ time the company could thus be seen as a ‘national champion’.

Tesco will, however, also face challenges to its dominance in the future, and maintaining its premier position could be difficult. There are also criticisms that it might be too powerful in its relationship with suppliers. Whatever happens, expect Higginson to be at the forefront in meeting those challenges.

ON THE WAY UP

Higginson learnt his trade at Unilever as an internal auditor from1980 to 1984. He then spent two years at Lever Brothers China as a commercial manager in Hong Kong – international experience that could prove valuable at Tesco. He worked at Guinness in the late 1980s as finance director, then at Laura Ashley as group FD. Before Tesco he worked at Burton, all of which makes him a retailer through and through. At Burton his career coincided with another well known-figure in retailing today: Stuart Rose, about whom he still speaks warmly.