TESCO PLC

TESCO PLC

Tesco PLC is a multinational British general merchandise and grocery retailer. It has its headquarters in Cheshunt in the United Kingdom. Tesco PLC is the third largest retailer in the world in terms of revenues. It closely comes behind Wal-Mart and Carrefour. In regards to profits, it is the second largest after Wal-Mart (Tesco). Tesco PLC has stores in 14 countries that spread across Europe, Asia and North America. Tesco PLC has a grocery market share of close to 30%, thus making it the grocery market leader in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Malaysia and Thailand. It has a customer base that runs into millions per week and expeditiously boasts of workforce of over 500,000 employees (Wrigley, 1988, p. 106).

Jack Cohen founded the company in 1919 as a group of market stalls. The name Tesco appeared first in 1924, but it was not until 1929 when the first Tesco store opened its door. The store was originally a UK grocery retailer, but it has diversified increasingly geographically and into other areas including electronics, petrol, clothing, furniture, books retail, financial services, software, internet services, and music downloads, DVD rental and telecoms. Tesco repositioned itself in the 1990s to Tesco Finest ranges (Tesco). This inevitably led to successful chain growth of the store from 500 stores in the 1990s to 2,500 stores in 2005.

Tesco’s Values sits at the heart of its business and helps the store to deliver its core purpose, which is to generate value for its treasured customers in order to earn their lifetime loyalty. The store affirms that it tries to its level best for its customers, treat people, as they would love to be treated in order to, fully enjoy their work (Bell & Reavis, 2003, p. 41). The year 1997 was the year that these values were developed. Various touch ups have been done to perfect the values to align them to today’s business current trends. Tesco ensures that it thrives in surpassing its values while offering the absolute exemplary customer service.

Tesco’s UK operations are divided into six distinctive formats that include Tesco Extra, Tesco Superstores, Tesco Metro, Tesco Express, One Stop, Tesco Homeplus and Dobbies. Tesco Extra stores are hypermarkets usually located out of town and are larger as compared to the other stores. These stores stock all of Tesco’s range of products although some of the stores are in the heart of inner-city locations and town centers. Tesco Superstores are large standard supermarkets, which stock groceries and a smaller range of non-food products in comparison with Extra stores. Tesco Metro stores are mainly located in the inner city, in city centers and on high streets of towns. They are in between Tesco Express stores and Tesco Superstores in terms of size. Tesco Express sores are notably the neighborhood convenience stores that are found in residential areas, in the city centre districts, small villages and towns and on Esso petrol stations (Tesco).

According to Bell & Reavis (2003, p. 40), One Stop stores do not have the Tesco brand name. The stores are to be found in smaller residential areas. There prices also differ from other Tesco stores. Tesco Homeplus are non-food only ventures, and there are 13 stores nationwide. The stores offer all of the Tesco’s items but with an exception of food. The stores have a warehouse-style unit in retail parks. Dobbies Garden Centers are 28 garden centers in total. This number is equally divided between the stores in England and Scotland. Tesco bought 65% shares of the Dobbies Garden Centers PLC in 2008.

According to Woods (2012, p.47), other business activities that Tesco undertakes include Internet retailing, financial services, petrol stations, telecoms, photo shops, Tesco Tech Support, Technika, filmmaking, record label, video-on-demand, gold exchange, Tesco Tyres and beauty salon. The store made record profits of £3.4 billion in the year 2010 despite the economy being in a recession. Tesco is listed Public Limited Company that is listed as LSE: TSCO on the London Stock Exchange. Tesco is a component of the FTSE 100 Index, which had a marker capitalization of close to £24.4 billion as of January 15, 2012. This was the 15th largest among any company that has a primary listing on the LSE (London Stock Exchange) (Fernie & Sparks, 2009, p. 150).