Tesco plc is a British-based international grocery and general merchandising retail chain. It is the largest British retailer by both global sales and domestic market share with profits exceeding £3 billion. Currently the third largest global retailer based on revenue, behind Wal-Mart and France's Carrefour. Originally specialising in food and drink, it has diversified into areas such as clothing, consumer electronics, financial services, telecoms; home, health and car insurance; dental plans, retailing and renting DVDs, CDs, music downloads, Internet services, and software.

History

Jack Cohen founded Tesco in 1919 when he began to sell surplus groceries from a stall in the East End of London. The Tesco brand first appeared in 1924. The name came about after Jack Cohen bought a shipment of tea from T.E. Stockwell. He made new labels using the first three letters of the supplier's name (TES), and the first two letters of his surname (CO), forming the word "TESCO". The first Tesco store was opened in 1929 in Burnt Oak, Edgware, Middlesex. Tesco floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1947 as Tesco Stores (Holdings) Limited. The first self service store opened in St Albans in 1951 (still operational in 2008 as a Metro), and the first supermarket in Maldon in 1956.

During the 1950s and the 1960s Tesco grew organically, but also through acquisitions until it owned more than 800 stores. The company purchased 70 Williamsons stores (1957), 200 Harrow Stores outlets (1959), 212 Irwins stores (1960), 97 Charles Phillips stores (1964) and the Victor Value chain (1968) (sold to Bejam in 1986).

Founder Jack Cohen was an enthusiastic advocate of trading stamps as an inducement for shoppers to patronise his stores. He signed up with Green Shield Stamps in 1963, and became one of the company's largest clients.

In 1973 Jack Cohen resigned and was replaced as Chairman by his son-in-law Leslie Porter. Porter and managing director Ian MacLaurin abandoned the "pile it high sell it cheap" philosophy of Cohen which had left the company "stagnating" and with a "bad image". In 1977 Tesco launched "Operation Checkout" with the abandonment of Green Shield stamps, price reductions and centralised buying for all stores. The result was a rise in market share of 4% in two months.

In May 1987 Tesco completed its hostile takeover of the Hillards chain of 40 supermarkets in the North of England for £220 million

In 1994, the company took over the supermarket chain William Low, successfully fighting off Sainsbury's for control of the Dundee-based firm which operated 57 stores. This paved the way for Tesco to expand its presence in Scotland, which was weaker than in England. In 2006 Inverness was branded as "Tescotown", because well over 50p in every £1 spent on food is believed to be spent in its three Tesco stores.

Tesco introduced a loyalty card, branded 'Clubcard', in 1995 and later an Internet shopping service. As of November 2006 Tesco was the only food retailer to make online shopping profitable. In 1996, the typeface of the logo was changed to the current version with stripe reflections underneath. Terry Leahy assumed the role of chief executive on 21 February 1997, the announcement having been made on 21 November 1995.

On 21 March 1997 Tesco announced the purchase of the retail arm of Associated British Foods which consisted of the Quinnsworth, Stewarts and Crazy Prices chains in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, as well as associated businesses for £640 million. The deal was approved by the European Commission on 6 May 1997. This acquisition gave it both a major presence in the Republic of Ireland, and a larger presence in Northern Ireland than Sainsbury's which had begun its move into the province in 1995.

In 1997, Tesco Stores Limited and Esso (part of Exxonmobil) forged a business alliance that included several petrol filling stations on lease from Esso, where Tesco would operate the store under the Express format. In turn, Esso would operate the forecourts and sell their fuel via the Tesco store. Ten years later, over 600 Tesco/Esso stores can now be found across the United Kingdom.

In July 2001 it became involved in internet grocery retailing in the USA when it obtained a 35% stake in GroceryWorks. In 2002 Tesco purchased 13 HIT hypermarkets in Poland. It also made a major move into the UK convenience store market with its purchase of T & S Stores, owner of 870 convenience stores in the One Stop, Dillons and Day & Nite chains in the UK.

In October 2003 it launched a UK telecoms division, comprising mobile and home phone services, to complement its existing Internet service provider business. In June 2003 Tesco purchased the C Two-Network in Japan. It also acquired a majority stake in Turkish supermarket chain Kipa. In January 2004 Tesco acquired Adminstore, owner of 45 Cullens, Europa, and Harts convenience stores, in and around London. In August 2004, it also launched a broadband service. In Thailand Tesco Lotus was a joint venture of the Charoen Pokphand Group and Tesco but facing criticism over the growth of hypermarkets. CP Group sold its Tesco Lotus shares in 2003. In late 2005 Tesco acquired the 21 remaining Safeway/BP stores after Morrisons dissolved the Safeway/BP partnership. In mid 2006 Tesco purchased an 80% stake in Casino's Leader Price supermarkets in Poland. They will be rebranded into small Tesco stores.

In 2007, Tesco joined forces with O2 in Ireland to form Tesco Mobile, using the 089 prefix. Tesco owns 50% of the network, with O2 owning the remainder. Tesco has not built its own network in Ireland, but uses the O2 infrastructure already in place, similar to the arrangement in the UK. By doing this, Tesco has saved money and already has 99.6% population network coverage and 95% geographical coverage.

In April 2009, Tesco announced that it had created a super tomato that "doesn't leak". The tomato is grown in Holland and is meant to be a better tomato for sandwiches since, being less juicy, they won't make sandwiches as soggy as regular tomatoes do.

Tesco's international expansion strategy has responded to the need to be sensitive to local expectations in other countries by entering into joint ventures with local partners, such as Samsung Group in South Korea (Samsung-Tesco Home plus), and Charoen Pokphand in Thailand (Tesco Lotus), appointing a very high proportion of local personnel to management positions. It also makes small acquisitions as part of its strategy for example, in its 2005/2006 financial year it made acquisitions in South Korea, one in Poland and one in Japan.

In late 2004 the amount of floorspace Tesco operated outside the United Kingdom surpassed the amount it had in its home market for the first time, although the United Kingdom still accounted for more than 75% of group revenue due to lower sales per unit area outside the UK.

UK operations

Tesco's UK stores are divided into six formats, differentiated by size and the range of products sold. These are shown below;

Tesco Extra

Tesco Extra, Southport, England. Tesco Extra stores are larger, mainly out-of-town hypermarkets that stock nearly all of Tesco's product ranges. The first Extra opened in 1997. The 100th store opened on 29 November 2004 in Stafford. The number of these is now being increased by about 20 a year, mainly by conversions from the second category. The largest store by floor space is Tesco Extra in Pitsea, Basildon with floorspace of 11,600 m2 (125,000 sq ft). Newer Tesco Extra stores are usually on two floors, with the ground floor for mainly food and the first floor for clothing, electronics and entertainment. Most Tesco Extra stores have a café. However, the Perth and Manchester Gorton stores, have all sales on one floor, with a cafe on the upper balcony. The Manchester Gorton store opened in October 2008, with the Perth store opening several years before, but only being converted to an extra recently. A Tesco Extra has recently been opened in Oldham, Greater Manchester, which replaced the most profitable store in the UK. The new store is the biggest Tesco in the UK.

Tesco Superstores

Tesco superstores are standard large supermarkets, stocking groceries and a much smaller range of non-food goods than Extra stores; they are referred to as "superstores" for convenience, but this word does not usually appear on the shops. A new store in Liverpool is the first to use the branding 'Tesco Superstore' above the door.

Tesco Metro

Tesco Metro stores are sized between Tesco superstores and Tesco Express stores. They are mainly located in city centres, the inner city and on the high streets of small towns such as Rowlands Gill, Nelson and Cleveleys. The first Tesco Metro was opened in Covent Garden, London in 1992. Since then all Tesco branches that have a high street format including those which opened before the Covent Garden branch have been subsequently rebranded from Tesco to Tesco Metro probably to give an identity to the Tesco high street sub brand. The Tesco store in Devizes was the last store to finish rebranding, in September 2006. The store had not been renovated for over 20 years.

Tesco Express

Tesco Express stores are neighbourhood convenience shops, stocking mainly food with an emphasis on higher-margin products (due to small store size, and the necessity to maximize revenue per square foot) alongside everyday essentials. They are found in busy city centre districts, small shopping precincts in residential areas, small towns and on Esso petrol station forecourts. There were 827 such stores at 23 February 2008.

Internet operations

Tesco operates a grocery homeshopping service, as well as providing consumer goods, telecommunications and financial services online.

Tesco has operated on the internet since 1994 and was the first retailer in the world to offer a robust home shopping service in 1996. Tesco.com was formally launched in 2000. It also has online operations in the Republic of Ireland and South Korea. Grocery sales are available within delivery range of selected stores, goods being hand-picked within each store, in contrast to the warehouse model followed by Ocado. In 2003, tesco.com's CEO at the time, John Browett, received the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award for the innovative processes he used to support this online grocery service.

On 1 October 2006, Tesco announced that it will be selling six own-brand budget software packages for under £20 each, including office and security suites, in a partnership with software firm Formjet. As Formjet is exclusive distributor for Panda Software and Ability Plus Software, packages from these companies are likely to feature.

Tesco offers an internet-based DVD rental service, which is operated by LOVEFiLM and a music download service.