Tesco

Tesco PLC is a British multinational grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom. It is the third largest retailer in the world measured by profits and second-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,Malaysia, and Thailand.

Tesco was founded in 1919 by Jack Cohen as a group of market stalls. 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, and the first Tesco store opened in 1929 in Burnt Oak, Barnet. His business expanded rapidly, and by 1939 he had over 100 Tesco stores across the country.

Originally a UK grocery retailer, since the early 1990s Tesco has diversified geographically 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) 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.

Tesco (disambiguation)

Tesco PLC is an international retailer with headquarters in the United Kingdom.

Tesco may also refer to:

Tesco.com

Tesco.com is an electronic commerce website operated by Tesco. It offers a wide range of other products, including electronic goods, books, broadband and financial services.

Tesco has operated on the Internet since 1994 and started an online shopping service named 'Tesco Direct' in 1997. Tesco.com was formally launched in 2000. It also has online operations in the Republic of Ireland and South Korea. 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.

In 2001 Tesco.com invested in GroceryWorks, a joint venture with the American Safeway Inc. (who had long since sold-off their UK subsidiary and Tesco's former rival, Safeway plc), operating in the United States and Canada. GroceryWorks had stepped into the void left by the collapse of Webvan, but did not expand as fast as initially expected and Tesco sold its stake to Safeway Inc in 2006.

Concerned with poor web response times (in 1996, broadband was virtually unknown in the UK), Tesco offered a CDROM-based off-line 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, but was withdrawn in 2000.