103 Facts About Tesco

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tesco purchased 70 Williamson's shops, 200 Harrow Stores outlets (1959), 212 Irwins shops (1960), 97 Charles Phillips shops (1964) and the Victor Value chain (1968) (sold to Bejam in 1986).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In January 2015, Tesco 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 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 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 being Britain's largest food retailer and Booker being the UK's largest wholesaler.

In June 2017, Tesco announced a major cost-cutting initiative that would reduce the company's workforce by over 1, 200 workers.

In January 2019, Tesco announced another cost-cutting initiative that would close the food counters in 90 stores, affecting around 9, 000 workers.

In October 2019, Tesco 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 put purchasing limits on some products, such as eggs, rice, soap, and toilet papers, in order to give everyone access to the products.

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

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

Tesco 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 (due to small shop size, and the necessity to maximise revenue per square foot) alongside everyday essentials.

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

Tesco sells 95, 97 and 99 RON petrol from forecourts at most Superstore and Extra locations.

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

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

Tesco 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.

The business has attracted some controversy, as the prices of groceries in these shops, often situated in more impoverished areas, can be higher than nearby Tesco branded shops, highlighted in The Times 22 March 2010: "Britain's biggest supermarket uses its chain of 639 One Stop convenience shops–which many customers do not realise it owns–to charge up to 14 per cent more for goods than it does in Tesco-branded shops.

Tesco responded to the article stating "It is a separate business within the Tesco Group, with its own supply chain and distribution network.

In 2018, Tesco 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 announced it would be shutting down its Jack's stores, with stores either being closed or converted to Tesco Superstores.

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

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

In May 2005, Tesco 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 was looking to close the business to focus on groceries.

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

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

Tesco 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tesco Hungary offers a clothing line and personal finance services.

Tesco 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 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 announced its intent to sell all of its operations in Poland.

Tesco Slovakia has recently put great emphasis on organic products.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In 2008 Tesco 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 has adopted an approach that focuses on small corner shops that operate similarly to its Express format, rather than opening hypermarkets.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tesco 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.

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

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

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Tesco then planned to create 16, 000 new jobs, 9, 000 in the UK.

Tesco 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 for leading the debate on corporate responsibility.

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

In 2009, Tesco used the phrase, "Change for Good" as advertising, which is trade marked by Unicef for charity usage but not for commercial or retail use, which prompted the agency to say, "It is the first time in Unicef's history that a commercial entity has purposely set out to capitalise on one of our campaigns and subsequently damage an income stream which several of our programmes for children are dependent on.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tesco later said: "This clearly should never have happened and we will contact Ms Makri directly to apologise.

Tesco 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'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.