97 Facts About Tesco Metro

Tesco Metro PLC is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England.

Tesco Metro was founded in 1919 by Jack Cohen as a group of market stalls in Hackney, London.

Tesco Metro's business expanded rapidly, and by 1939 he had over 100 Tesco shops across the country.

Tesco Metro has expanded globally since the early 1990s, with operations in 11 other countries in the world.

Tesco Metro pulled out of the US in 2013, but as of 2018 continues to see growth elsewhere.

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Since the 1960s, Tesco Metro has diversified into areas such as the retailing of books, clothing, electronics, furniture, toys, petrol, software, financial services, telecoms and internet services.

Tesco Metro is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

Tesco Metro made new labels using the initials of the supplier's name, and the first two letters of his surname, forming the word TESCO.

Tesco Metro was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1947 as Tesco Metro Stores Limited.

In 1961 Tesco Metro Leicester made an appearance in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest shop in Europe.

Tesco Metro purchased 70 Williamson's shops, 200 Harrow Stores outlets, 212 Irwins shops, 97 Charles Phillips shops and the Victor Value chain .

Tesco Metro introduced a loyalty card, branded 'Clubcard' in 1995, and later an Internet shopping service.

In January 2004, Tesco Metro acquired Adminstore, owner of 45 Cullens, Europa, and Harts convenience shops, in and around London.

In 2010, Tesco Metro started funding a small film studio intended to produce Tesco Metro exclusive direct-to-DVD films.

Tesco Metro confirmed in April 2013 that it was pulling out of the US market, at a reported cost of £1.

In September 2013, Tesco Metro announced that it would sell the business to Ronald Burkle's Yucaipa Companies for an undisclosed amount.

That same month, Tesco Metro launched its first tablet computer, a seven-inch model called Hudl.

Also in 2013, Tesco Metro purchased the restaurant and cafe chain Giraffe for £48.

In January 2015, Tesco Metro confirmed the sale of its Blinkbox on-demand video service and its fixed-line telephone and broadband business to TalkTalk.

On 26 January 2015, Tesco Metro sold the Blinkbox Music streaming service to Guvera, and confirmed it would close its Blinkbox Books service by the end of February 2015.

On 27 January 2017, it was announced that Tesco Metro had reached an agreement to merge with Britain's biggest wholesaler Booker Group to create the UK's largest food group, there are however concerns over market dominance with Tesco Metro being Britain's largest food retailer and Booker being the UK's largest wholesaler.

In October 2019, Tesco Metro announced that CEO Dave Lewis would step down in 2020, and would be succeeded by Ken Murphy.

In December 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tesco Metro put purchasing limits on some products, such as eggs, rice, soap, and toilet papers, in order to give everyone access to the products.

Tesco Metro Superstores are standard large supermarkets, stocking groceries and a much smaller range of non-food goods than Extra hypermarkets.

Tesco Metro operates a number of in-shop cafes, but began to introduce new restaurants in its shops from 2013 under the "Decks Carvery" brand.

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Tesco Metro Express shops are neighbourhood convenience shops averaging 200 square metres, stocking mainly food with an emphasis on higher-margin products such as sweets, crisps, chocolate, biscuits, fizzy drinks and processed food alongside everyday essentials.

In 2010 it became known that Tesco Metro was operating Express pricing, charging more in its Express branches than in its other stores.

Since 2006 Tesco Metro has operated a number of dark stores dedicated to the fulfilment of online orders of groceries.

Tesco Metro launched its customer loyalty scheme, the Tesco Metro Clubcard, in 1995.

Tesco Metro itself was cited in a Wall Street Journal article as using the intelligence from the Clubcard to thwart Wal-Mart's initiatives in the UK.

In 2018, Tesco Metro launched a separate budget chain, Jack's, to compete with Lidl and Aldi; the first store opened in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire in September 2018.

In January 2022 Tesco Metro announced it would be shutting down its Jack's stores, with stores either being closed or converted to Tesco Metro Superstores.

Tesco Metro completed its acquisition of the food wholesaler Booker in March 2018.

Tesco Metro operates a mobile phone business across the United Kingdom, Ireland, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

In May 2005, Tesco Metro announced a trial non-food only format near Manchester and Aberdeen, and the first shop opened in October 2005.

In 2012 it was reported that Tesco Metro was looking to close the business to focus on groceries.

Tesco Metro closed six Homeplus shops on 15 March 2015, and the remaining six shops closed on 27 June 2015.

Tesco Metro completed its acquisition of Dobbies in 2008, and the company continued to trade under its own brand, from its own head office in Melville, near Edinburgh.

In 2012, Tesco Metro invested in a new coffee shop chain, named Harris + Hoole after coffee-loving characters in Samuel Pepys' diary.

Tesco Metro took full ownership of the business from its founders Nick, Andrew and Laura Tolley in February 2016, and agreed in June 2016 to sell it to Caffe Nero.

Giraffe is a restaurant chain in the United Kingdom which Tesco Metro purchased in March 2013 as part of a strategy of making use of excess space in its shops.

Tesco Metro has expanded its operations from the United Kingdom to 11 other countries.

Tesco Metro pulled out of the United States in 2013, but continues to see growth elsewhere.

Tesco Metro opened its first store in the Czech Republic in 1996 and now has over 300 stores, with further planned.

Tesco Metro opened its first stores in the Czech Republic by buying US corporation Kmart's operations in the country and converting them into Tesco Metro stores.

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Tesco Metro is keen to expand non-food items and has already opened petrol stations and offers personal finance services in the Czech Republic.

Tesco Metro owned a French food retailer called Catteau between 1993 and 1997, which operated a chain of 92 stores in NE France under the Cedico, Hyper Cedico and Cedimarche banners.

Tesco Metro operated a "Vin Plus" outlet in Calais, selling wine, beer and spirits, which closed on 30 August 2010, due to decline of the booze cruise.

Tesco Metro launched in Hungary in 1994 after purchasing a small local supermarket group trading as S-Market based in Szombathely, in the west of Hungary.

Tesco Metro operates through more than 200 stores in Hungary with further openings planned.

Tesco Metro Hungary offers a clothing line and personal finance services.

Tesco Metro entered the Polish market in 1995 acquiring local Polish supermarket chains- Minor, Madex and Savia and opened its first hypermarket in Wroclaw Bielany in 1998.

Tesco Metro Poland offered a broad range of brands on the Polish market including its own branded line of products as well as regional produce, petrol, personal finance services and on-line photo processing.

In November 2019, having suffered years of net losses and despite extensive cost-cutting and attempts at streamlining of its business model, Tesco Metro announced its intent to sell all of its operations in Poland.

Tesco Metro Slovakia has recently put great emphasis on organic products.

However, Tesco Metro Slovakia caused controversy amongst the Slovak government when it was found to have come foul of food safety laws in 2006.

Tesco Metro first operated in the Irish grocery market in the early 1980s, selling its operations there in March 1986.

Tesco Metro re-entered the Irish market in 1997 after the purchase of Power Supermarkets Ltd.

Tesco Metro Ireland operates a number of Tesco Metro Extra hypermarkets in Ireland, with Clarehall Extra on the Malahide Road being the first to open in 2006.

Tesco Metro has a large store in Weifang, Shandong province, and a further two floor store in Taizhou, Jiangsu province.

Tesco Metro has been increasing its own brand products into the Chinese market as well as introducing the Tesco Metro Express format.

In May 2014 Tesco Metro made a deal with the state-run China Resources Enterprise to create a joint venture, combining Tesco Metro's 131 stores in the country with CRE's nearly 3000 outlets.

Tesco Metro has had a limited presence in India with a service centre in Bangalore, and outsourcing.

In 2008 Tesco Metro announced their intention to invest an initial £60m to open a wholesale cash-and-carry business based in Mumbai with the assistance of the Tata Group.

Tesco Metro has adopted an approach that focuses on small corner shops that operate similarly to its Express format, rather than opening hypermarkets.

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Tesco Metro opened its first store in Malaysia in May 2002 with the opening of its first hypermarket in Puchong, Selangor.

Tesco Metro Malaysia offers a value range, its own branded range, electronic goods, the loyalty clubcard and clothing.

The Malaysian operation of Tesco Metro includes a convenience store, Tesco Metro Pernama Ekspres, which began operation in February 2015.

In 2020, Tesco Metro agreed to sell its Malaysian business to the Thailand-based, Charoen Pokphand Group for US$10.

On 16 February 2017 Tesco Metro announced a wholesale partnership with Limestone Private Limited, owner of the Alpha Superstores chain.

On 14 May 2008, Tesco Metro agreed to purchase 36 hypermarkets with a combination of food and non-food products from E-Land for $1.

Tesco Metro entered Thailand in 1998 and operates through 380 stores as part of a joint venture with Charoen Pokphand and named the operation "Tesco Metro Lotus".

Tesco Metro Lotus sells a diverse range of products from value food products to electronics to personal finance services.

Tesco Metro is keen to promote its green values and has partnered with the UNEP.

Tesco Metro agreed to sell its Thai business to Charoen Pokphand Group for $10.

Tesco Metro entered the Turkish market in 2003 and uses the trading name "Tesco Metro Kipa".

Tesco Metro remains focused on building infrastructure in Turkey to complete its expansion plans and introduced the Tesco Metro Express format into Turkey in 2006.

Tesco Metro established its U S headquarters in El Segundo, California, and the first store opened in Hemet, California in November 2007, with 100 more planned in the first year; a store opening every two-and-a-half days.

The deal included Tesco Metro loaning the venture £80m and retaining an option to buy back a stake in the business if Yucaipa succeeded in turning around the group's performance.

Tesco Metro have two vegan ranges branded "Plant Chef" and "Wicked Kitchen".

In 2016, Tesco Metro developed a mobile payment wallet, PayQwiq using both NFC contactless and barcode technology to allow payment using mobile phones in-shop .

Tesco Metro made a commitment to corporate social responsibility in the form of contributions of 1.

Will Hutton, in his role as chief executive of The Work Foundation, in 2007 praised Tesco Metro for leading the debate on corporate responsibility.

In 1992, Tesco Metro started a "computers for schools scheme", offering computers in return for vouchers given to Tesco Metro customers and donated by them to schools and hospitals.

In November 2013, Tesco Metro announced it would introduce face-scanning technology developed by Amscreen at all of its 450 UK petrol stations to target advertisements to individual customers.

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Criticism of Tesco Metro includes allegations of stifling competition due to its undeveloped "land bank", and breaching planning laws.

Tesco Metro have been criticised for aggressively pursuing critics of the company in Thailand.

Tesco Metro served him with writs for criminal defamation and civil libel.

In November 2007, Tesco Metro sued a Thai academic and a former minister for civil libel and criminal defamation, insisting that the two pay £1.

In 2007, Tesco Metro was placed under investigation by the UK Office of Fair Trading for acting as part of a cartel of five supermarkets and a number of dairy companies to fix the price of milk, butter and cheese.

In May 2007, it was reported that Tesco Metro had moved the head office of its online operations to Switzerland.

Tesco Metro's expansion has been criticised, and in some cases actively opposed;.

Tesco Metro withdrew 26 of its products in response, and announced that it was working with authorities and the supplier to investigate the cause of the contamination.

In 2014, Tesco Metro staff shouted at a customer with a guide dog and told her not to return to the store.

In 2014, The Guardian reported that Tesco Metro is a client of Charoen Pokphand Foods.

Tesco Metro has been targeted by protesters complaining the supermarket chain sells goods made in Israel, with most complaints being about products emanating from Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Tesco Metro's found some evidence of benefits which suppliers derive from these arrangements, but recorded a concern—to be investigated further—as to whether the purpose of the Groceries Code was being circumvented by these payments.