Tesco CEO Ken Murphy stressed that doing the right thing always made good business sense as he set out the UK supermarket giant’s agenda to act as a responsible retailer at the World Retail Congress in London this morning.

Delivering the opening address to over a thousand delegates, Murphy said that not only did growth matter “because retail is a sector like no other” but that the scale of the challenges ahead made consumer trust in the brand more important than ever.

“We also need to be honest about the scale of the challenges ahead, because rarely have things been as challenging as they are today,” he said. “Not only do we have the ongoing shake up of global trading arrangements but also we have seen several floods, flash fires and droughts around the world.”

In such a volatile and divisive environment, he insisted: “Trust doesn’t follow success, it drives it”, as he said that in order for shoppers to engage with a retailer, customers need to believe a business does good.

Murphy also pointed to a number of initiatives being taken forward by Tesco or trialled currently, including the introduction of rapid delivery to 1,500 stores meaning that they could provide delivery in less than 30 minutes, as he said that the company continued to work closely with long-time partner Dunnhumby to “make better decisions across our business”.

The retailer’s pioneering Clubcard will celebrate 30 years this year and Murphy said that Tesco is currently trialling personalised Clubcard prices.

“Success for customers is about when to use the right techniques. If there is one thing it has taught us, to do the right thing you have to understand them and that looks very different now than it did in 1995. Customers want to know they are buying from companies that align with their values,” he said.

Continuing the theme of responsible retail, Murphy said that the stores now acted as community hubs, a responsibility that he said comes from the company’s size, plus its initiatives across sustainable farming and the introduction of 2,700 EV charge points across 600 stores, the largest network of any supermarket, plus its commitment to all energy from renewable sources by 2030.