Tesco — International Grocery Platform
Managed 8 senior engineers delivering Checkout, PLP, PDP, OMS and User Management across 8+ countries. Custom SASS multi-theming framework. Won Retail Systems International Retailer of the Year 2012–13.
The Situation
Tesco needed a single digital grocery platform that could operate across 8+ international markets simultaneously — each with different languages, currencies, regulations, and brand expressions — while maintaining engineering velocity and release reliability.
My Role
- Managed 8 senior frontend engineers across multiple global scrum teams
- Delivered Checkout, PLP, PDP, Order Management System, and User Management modules
- Architected a custom SASS multi-theming framework enabling simultaneous 8-country launch without duplicating code
- Implemented a country-X development model for rapid market rollouts
- Maintained 95% on-time release rate across all programmes
The Multi-Theming Framework
The technical centrepiece was a SASS-based theming system that allowed a single codebase to produce market-specific visual outputs at build time — fonts, colours, images, layout variations — all driven by configuration rather than code forks.
This was the key enabler for the 8-country simultaneous launch and became a reference architecture within Publicis Sapient for multi-market retail platforms.
Outcomes
- 8+ countries launched simultaneously using the multi-theming framework
- 95% on-time release rate across all sprints and markets
- Retail Systems International Retailer of the Year 2012–13 — industry-level recognition across the entire retail technology sector
- ~30% reduction in redundant development through shared component libraries
- ~25% reduction in page load times through performance optimisation initiatives