It recently emerged that UK supermarket chain Tesco has recently acquired a Gulfstream G550, a $50,000,000USD corporate jet. This comes not a week after major discrepancies were discovered in the company’s accounts, leading to Tesco’s accounting scandal. Tesco’s shares have since plummeted, leaving shareholders angry (as they should be, seeing as they inadvertently paid for Tesco executives’ private jet). The cost of the Gulfstream does not stop at its MSRP, however. Operating the private jet would cost the company approximately $107,000USD per 12 hour flight.

A Gulfstream G550         Source: Associated Press

Tesco, from a consumer standpoint, is not the worst grocery store chain in the world (save for the horse meat scandal); but its corporate ethics negatively differentiate it from its competition. Their lavish expenditures are a reflection of the corporate greed that gave it motive to essentially commit financial fraud. Taking stakeholder theory into consideration, it would not be wrong to say Tesco is a business in decline.

Tesco’s outing of its previous CEO, and the suspension of four members of its C-suite is evidence that the company is attempting damage control, in an effort to save their dwindling share value and re-brand the company. But whether these tasks, undertaken by new CEO David Lewis, are enough to save the company from decline remains to be seen.