Matt Davies, the former boss of Pets at Home, has started work on transforming the fortunes of troubled supermarket group Tesco. As the new head of the company's UK and Irish business, Davies has taken on a massive task.

Davies joins Tesco after two years at Halfords. He’s widely accepted to have turned round the fortunes of the cycling and car parts chain by improving service and identifying growth markets.

Already a multimillionaire, Davies made his money after eight years at the helm at Pets at Home, during which time the chain more than doubled in size to 300-plus stores.

Davies never needed to work again after making tens of millions of pounds in his first chief executive role, as head of the Pets at Home chain. But wealth has clearly not dulled the ambition of the 44-year-old Mancunian, as he takes on the toughest job in British retail: turning round Tesco’s UK business.

He left Pets at Home three years ago after the company grew dramatically, from 140 stores to more than 300. he also led it through the £955m secondary buyout by KKR in 2011.

In his previous roles at Halfords and Pets at Home, Davies oversaw training programmes which rewarded staff for improving their skills and helped the business lift sales by having more informed shop assistants.

He’s likely to bring that approach to Tesco. He will have to adapt it for Tesco’s shop floor as grocery retailing is inherently more self-service than the businesses Davies has previously worked in.