Tesco

Tesco logo

"Historic" Tesco store in St Albans

Tesco PLC is the largest British supermarket chain in the UK and is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol TSCO. It also has a secondary listing on the Irish Stock Exchange with the name TESCO LTD. It has significant operations in other countries. Originally specializing in food, they have moved into areas such as clothes, consumer electronics, financial services, ISP and cars. By 2003 it had over 2000 stores, including a large number of convenience stores in the UK, employed 326,000 poeple, and made a pre-tax profit of 1,401 million pounds on a turnover of 21,309 million pounds.

Tesco was founded by Jack Cohen, who was selling groceries in the markets of the London East End from 1919. The Tesco brand first appeared in 1924 after Jack Cohen bought a large shipment of tea from T.E. Stockwell and made new labels by using the first three letters of the supplier's name and the first two letters of his surname forming the word "TESCO".

The first Tesco store was opened in 1929 in Burnt Oak, Edgware, London. The firm was floated on the stock exchange in 1947. The first Tesco self-service store opened in 1948 in St Albans and is still trading as of 2004. The first Tesco supermarket was opened in 1956 at a converted cinema in Maldon, Essex. Its first "superstore" was opened in 1968 in Crawley, West Sussex. It began selling petrol in 1974 and its annual turnover reached 1000 million pounds in 1979. It introduced a loyalty card in 1995 and later an Internet shopping service. During the 1990s it expanded into Eastern Europe, Ireland and East Asia. In July 2001 it became involved in internet grocery retailing in the USA when it obtained a 35% stake in GroceryWorks.

In addition to opening its own stores, Tesco has expanded by taking over other chains, including:

Victor Value, England, 1968 (sold again in 1986)
William Low, Scotland, 1994
Quinnsworth, Stewarts and Crazy Prices stores, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland from Associated British Foods plc, 1997
13 HIT hypermarkets in Poland, 2002
T & S Stores, owner of the UK convenience store chains One Stop and Day & Nite, 2002
C Two-Network in Japan, 2003
A majority stake in Turkish supermarket chain Kipa in 2003.
Lotus in Thailand

Figures

Tesco profits

Employees: 223,179 (24/02/2004)

Earnings per share

Year	1999	2000	2001	2002	2005	2004
Earnings per share (in Pence)	9.10	10.18	10.87	12.33	13.54	15.05

Profits £'m

Year	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Net Revenues	17,158	18,796	20,988	23,653	26,337	30,814
Net Profit	606	99	722	830	946	1,100

Internet operations

Tesco operates on the internet in the UK. Grocery sales are available within delivery range of only selected stores, goods being hand picked within each store. This model allowed rapid expansion with limited investment, but has been criticised by consumers for the high level of substitutions arising from variable stock levels in stores. Nevertheless, it has been popular and is oversubscribed in some areas.

Concerned with poor web response times (at the time of its launch in the 1990s, broadband was virtually unknown in the UK) Tesco offered an offline ordering program which would connect only to download stock lists and send orders. This was in addition to, rather than instead of, ordering via web forms.

Outside the grocery department, Tesco also sell other products on the web, from wine and consumer electronics to utilities (gas, electricity) and holidays.

Operations outside the UK

Outside of the United Kingdom they also operate in the following countries:

External links and references

Tesco web site
Tesco Business History
Tesco buys Japanese retailer, BBC News, 10 June 2003
Jack Cohen wrote an autobiography Pile it high and sell it cheap.