plc type public limited company traded as lse tsco iseq tco industry retailing founded 1919 ; 97 years ago 1919 hackney london england founder jack cohen headquarters tesco house shire park kestrel way welwyn garden city hertfordshire al7 1ga england number of locations 6 902 stores as of september 2016 1 see table below key people john allan non executive chairman dave lewis group ceo products supermarket hypermarket superstore revenue 54.433 billion 2016 1 operating income 2.6 billion 2016 2 net income 2.854 billion 2016 2 total assets 43.668 billion 2016 2 total equity 8.616 billion 2016 2 number of employees 476 000 2016 1 subsidiaries tesco stores ltd. tesco bank tesco mobile tesco ireland tesco kipa tesco family dining ltd. giraffe restaurants dunnhumby spenhill website www.tescoplc.com tesco plc is a british multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer with headquarters in welwyn garden city hertfordshire england united kingdom . 4 it is the third largest retailer in the world measured by profits 5 6 and fifth largest retailer in the world measured by revenues . it has stores in 12 countries across asia and europe and is the grocery market leader in the uk where it has a market share of around 28.4 % ireland hungary 7 malaysia and thailand . 8 9 tesco was founded in 1919 by jack cohen as a group of market stalls . 10 the tesco name first appeared in 1924 after cohen purchased a shipment of tea from t. e. stockwell and combined those initials with the first two letters of his surname 11 and the first tesco store opened in 1931 in burnt oak barnet . 12 13 14 his business expanded rapidly and by 1939 he had over 100 tesco stores across the country . 15 originally a uk grocery retailer tesco has diversified geographically since the early 1990s and into areas such as the retailing of books clothing electronics furniture toys petrol and software ; financial services ; telecoms and internet services . the 1990s saw tesco reposition itself ; it moved from being a down market high volume low cost retailer to one which appeals across many social groups by offering products ranging from its tesco value items launched 1993 10 to its tesco finest range . this broadening of its appeal was successful and saw the chain grow from 500 stores in the mid 1990s to 2 500 stores fifteen years later . 16 tesco is listed on the london stock exchange and is a constituent of the ftse 100 index . it had a market capitalization of approximately 18.1 billion as of 22 april 2015 the 28th largest of any company with a primary listing on the london stock exchange . 17 contents 1 history 1.1 origins 1.2 expansion 1.3 diversification 1.4 restructuring 2 uk operations 2.1 tesco superstores 2.2 tesco metro 2.3 tesco express 2.4 tesco extra 2.5 one stop 2.6 internet retailing 2.7 tesco clubcard 2.8 petrol stations 3 subsidiaries 3.1 tesco family dining ltd tesco hospitality 3.2 tesco bank 3.3 telecoms 3.4 tesco tech support 4 former operations 4.1 tesco homeplus 4.2 dobbies garden centres 4.3 harris hoole 5 international operations 5.1 ireland 6 corporate affairs 6.1 corporate strategy 6.2 financial performance 6.3 market share 6.4 corporate social responsibility 7 advertising 8 criticism 8.1 litigation 8.2 price fixing 8.3 corporate tax structure 8.4 opposition to expansion 8.5 halal in uk stores 8.6 horse meat found in burgers 8.7 slavery in thailand 8.8 sale of goods from israel 8.9 mothballing of new stores 8.10 security 8.11 suppliers 9 chairman of tesco 10 see also 11 references 12 further reading 13 external links history edit origins edit jack cohen the son of jewish migrants from poland founded tesco in 1919 when he began to sell war surplus groceries from a stall at well street market hackney in the east end of london . 11 the tesco brand first appeared in 1924 . the name came about after jack cohen bought a shipment of tea from thomas edward stockwell . he made new labels using the initials of the supplier s name tes and the first two letters of his surname co forming the word tesco . 11 after experimenting with his first permanent indoor market stall at tooting in november 1930 jack cohen opened the first tesco store in september 1931 at 54 watling street burnt oak edgware middlesex . 12 13 14 tesco was floated on the london stock exchange in 1947 as tesco stores holdings limited . 11 the first self service store opened in st albans in 1956 which remained operational until 2010 before relocating to a larger premises on the same street with a period as a tesco metro 18 and the first supermarket in maldon in 1956 . 11 in 1961 tesco leicester made an appearance in the guinness book of records as the largest store in europe . 10 expansion edit during the 1950s and the 1960s tesco grew organically and also through acquisitions until it owned more than 800 stores . the company purchased 70 williamson s stores 1957 200 harrow stores outlets 1959 212 irwins stores 1960 beating express dairies premier supermarkets to the deal 97 charles phillips stores 1964 and the victor value chain 1968 sold to bejam in 1986 . 19 jack cohen s business motto was pile it high and sell it cheap 20 to which he added an internal motto of ycdbsoya you can t do business sitting on your arse which he used to motivate his sales force . 20 a branch of tesco in crediton . in may 1987 tesco completed its hostile takeover of the hillards chain of 40 supermarkets in the north of england for 220 million . 21 in 1994 the company took over the supermarket chain william low after 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 in which its presence was weaker than in england . 22 tesco introduced a loyalty card branded clubcard in 1995 and later an internet shopping service . in 1996 the typeface of the logo was changed to the current version with stripe reflections underneath whilst the corporate font used for store signage was changed from the familiar typewriter font that had been used since the 1970s . overseas operations were introduced the same year . 10 terry leahy assumed the role of chief executive on 21 february 1997 the appointment having been announced on 21 november 1995 . 23 24 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 ireland and northern ireland and associated businesses for 640 million . 25 the deal was approved by the european commission on 6 may 1997 . 26 the company was the subject of a letter bomb campaign lasting five months from august 2000 to february 2001 as a bomber calling himself sally sent letter bombs to tesco customers and demanded clubcards modified to withdraw money from cash machines . 27 diversification edit the first ever self service tesco store in st albans hertfordshire . the store has since relocated . in july 2001 tesco became involved in internet grocery retailing in the usa when it obtained a 35 % stake in groceryworks . 28 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 . 29 in june 2003 tesco purchased the c two network in japan . 30 it also acquired a majority stake in turkish supermarket chain kipa . 31 in january 2004 tesco acquired adminstore owner of 45 cullens europa and harts convenience stores in and around london . 32 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 . 33 in mid 2006 tesco purchased an 80 % stake in casino s leader price supermarkets in poland which were then rebranded as small tesco stores . 34 on 9 february 2006 tesco announced that it planned to move into the united states by opening a chain of small format grocery stores in the western states arizona california and nevada in 2007 named fresh & easy . 35 in 2010 tesco started funding a small film studio intended to produce tesco exclusive direct to films . the first film was released on 6 september called paris connections based on a popular novel by jackie collins . 36 37 restructuring edit tesco confirmed in april 2013 that it was pulling out of the us market fresh & easy stores at a reported cost of 1.2 billion . 38 in september 2013 tesco announced they would sell the business to ronald burkle s yucaipa companies for an undisclosed amount . 39 in september 2013 tesco launched its first tablet computer a seven inch model called hudl . 40 tesco purchased the restaurant and cafe chain giraffe in 2013 for 48.6 million . 41 in 2014 it began to open restaurants within some of its stores . the company set up tesco family dining ltd in 2014 as part of a new department called new food experience including core cafes girraffe decks and euphorium bakeries . that year tesco reached an agreement to take the in store cafes run by compass group and elior back under its own control so as to improve its dining offering . 42 on 1 september 2014 dave lewis previously of unilever took over as ceo . 43 in january 2015 lewis announced plans to close the company s head office in cheshunt and 43 loss making stores in the near future and the cancellation of 49 new large supermarket developments . 44 the store closures were expected to mean 2 000 staff are made redundant while a further 250m of cost cutting measures are planned . 45 tesco also confirmed the sale of its blinkbox on demand video service and its fixed line and broadband business to talktalk . 46 tesco sold the blinkbox music streaming service to guvera on 26 january 2015 47 and confirmed it would close its blinkbox books service by the end of february 2015 . 48 in april 2016 tesco confirmed the sale of 8.6 % of its holding in lazada group leaving it with an 8.3 % stake . it was also reported to be seeking to sell dobbies garden centres giraffe restaurants and harris hoole to concentrate on its main supermarket business . 49 uk operations edit tesco stores ltd. is the subsidiary of tesco plc in the united kingdom . tesco s uk operation is divided into six formats differentiated by size and the range of products sold . 50 as of 2015 tesco s uk store portfolio was as follows 51 format number total area m total area sq ft mean area m mean area sq ft percentage of space stores 2014 tesco extra 250 1 636 023 17 610 000 6 624 71 296 42.85 % 3 tesco superstores 479 1 310 862 14 110 000 2 761 29 274 34.33 % 8 tesco metro 178 203 551 2 191 000 1 044 11 236 5.33 % 13 tesco express 1 713 360 743 3 883 000 216 2 322 9.45 % 22 one stop 873 106 095 1 142 000 147 1 582 2.78 % 27 total 3 529 3 818 036 41 097 000 1 072 11 541 100 % 32 tesco superstores edit potters bar tesco