By Marianne Wilson

(September 4, 2009) British grocery giant Tesco has taken one of a retailer’s biggest challenges -- the weather -- into its own hands. Frustrated with Britain’s famously unpredictable weather and unhappy with the unreliability of the country’s national weather service, the chain set up its own six-person weather team.

Capping three years of research, the team has created its own software program that includes detailed regional weather reports of the United Kingdom for five years past and, most important, what each Tesco store sold as a result of that weather. The software also analyzes the weather forecasts that the team collects from a wide range of sources.

Jonathan Church, a Tesco spokesman, said in a statement: “In recent years, the unpredictability of the British summer -- not to mention the unreliability of British weather forecasters -- has caused a massive headache for those in the retail food business deciding exactly which foods to put out on shelves. Getting this right means we do a good job for customers but it can also help avoid food waste which costs money and is bad for the environment."

Tesco said the system successfully predicted temperature drops during July that led to a big increase in demand for soup and hot puddings. By comparison, the official Met Office weather service had predicted a hot summer with record temperatures.