Tesco Plc

Tesco was founded in 1919 in the East End of London by Jack Cohen Tesco is based in the UK and is described as an international grocery and general merchandising retail chain It is the world’s third largest global retailer in revenue terms (only Wal-Mart – the owner of Asda and Carrefour are bigger) In profit terms it is second only to Wal-Mart

Tesco figures Tesco is the largest British retailer with profits of £3.128 billion in 2009 Its revenue was £59.4 billion per year in 2009 Tesco employs 440,000 employees There are 3729 stores in the UK

What does Tesco sell? Originally Tesco sold groceries- food & drink Tesco continues to sell groceries but has carried out a process of diversification into other areas These include: consumer electronics, clothing, CDs, DVDs (both rental and sale), music downloads, optician and pharmacy services, software, Internet services, financial services, home health and car insurance, telecoms and dental plans

The history of Tesco Founded by Jack Cohen in 1919, Tesco gets its name from first three letters of a supplier Tesco TE Stockwell and the first two letters Jack Cohen’s surname The store was opened in 1929 and Tesco was first listed on the stock exchange in 1947 In the 1980s Tesco took over the Hillard’s chain of supermarkets purchasing 40 supermarkets in the North of England for £220 million

The history of Tesco In the 1990s company took over another supermarket chain William low purchasing 57 stores in Scotland Following year in 1995Tesco introduced a loyalty card which later became known as the Clubcard Internet shopping was introduced in ???? The Tesco remained the only food retailer to make this section of their business profitable

The history of Tesco 1997 Tesco purchased the retail section of Associated British Foods for £640m which gave them a presence in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland A deal was also carried out between Tesco and Esso which saw petrol stations operating through the stores

The history of Tesco The new millennium saw Tesco expanding overseas - indeed Tesco now operates 15 other countries around the world Tesco operates in USA, Poland, Japan, Slovakia, Malaysia, South Korea, Turkey, Thailand, China, Czech Republic, Croatia, France, Republic of Ireland, Hungary and Indonesia At home it purchased TNS stores, allowing it to have a presence in the convenience stores market and followed this up with an acquisition of Adminstore ensuring a presence in London It also expanded into providing telephone services and Internet service provision

Anti-competitive? Some would argue that Tesco’s is so big that it a monopoly and is particularly able to negotiate contracts with local suppliers at very low prices and thus make very high profits It also mean that there is a lack of choice for consumers when shopping for products Tesco has been accused of anti-competitive practices and was investigated in 2007 by the office of fair trading for acting with five other supermarkets to fix the price of milk butter and cheese –it is still under investigation

Corporate strategy Introduction of the Tesco ClubCard Tesco finest, value and Tesco own brand goods A range of stores – Tesco Extra, Tesco superstores, Tesco Metro, Tesco express, Tesco home plus, and One Stop Through the above Tesco seems to be able to appeal to all types of consumers and thus maximise its revenue

Social responsibility Computers for schools Tesco Cup ( football competition for young players) Also gives 1.87% of its pre-tax profits to charities