Tesco is a British multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer with headquarters in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and ninth-largest retailer in the world measured by revenue. It has stores in 12 countries across Asia and Europe and is the market leader of groceries in the UK, Ireland, Hungary, Malaysia, and Thailand.
The company was founded in 1919 by Jack Cohen as a group of market stalls.
The Tesco name first appeared in 1924, after Cohen bought a shipment of tea from T. E. Stockwell and combined those initials with the first two letters of his surname. Tesco grew rapidly, and by 1939 had over 100 stores across the country.
The company floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1947 as Tesco Stores (Holdings) Ltd. The first self-service store opened in St Albans in 1956 (which later became a superstore), and the first hypermarket,Tesco Extra, opened in 1968 in Crawley.
In November 2016, after extensive trial periods, Tesco announced that it would introduce a loyalty card scheme called Tesco Clubcard in Ireland, replacing Green Shield Stamps which had been issued there since 1986.
Tesco is currently in 12 countries:
- United Kingdom
- Ireland
- Poland
- Czech Republic
- Hungary
- Slovakia
- Turkey
- Malaysia
- Thailand
- South Korea
- China
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Tesco is currently operating in 12 countries across Asia and Europe. These countries are: United Kingdom, Ireland, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Turkey, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea and China.
In each of these countries, Tesco is the leading grocery retailer. The company plans to continue expanding its reach to even more countries in the future.
