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Tesco plc
Company typePublic (LSETSCO)
IndustryRetail (Grocery)
Founded1924
HeadquartersUnited Kingdom Cheshunt, United Kingdom
Key people
Sir Terry Leahy (CEO)
ProductsGroceries, general merchandise, financial services, telecoms
Revenue£38,259 million GBP1
£2,210 million
£1,576 million
Number of employees
389,258 (2005)
SubsidiariesTesco Stores Limited
Tesco Ireland Limited
Tesco Personal Finance (50%)
Websitewww.tesco.com
Footnotes / references
1. Results for 52 weeks ended 25 February 2006

Tesco plc is a United Kingdom-based international supermarket chain. It is the largest British retailer, both by global sales and by domestic market share, and the fourth largest retailer in the world behind Wal-Mart of the United States, Carrefour of France, and The Home Depot of the United States.

Originally specialising in food, it has moved into areas such as clothes, consumer electronics, consumer financial services, selling and renting DVDs,[1] compact discs and music downloads, internet service and consumer telecoms.

Facts and figures

Tesco's revenue for the 52 weeks to 25 February 2006 was £38.259 billion. In 2006 it adjusted the accounting date for its non-UK and Ireland operations, and including 60 weeks of non-UK and Ireland operations revenue was £39.454 billion. Group profit before tax was £2.210 billion for the 52 week period and £2.235 billion including 60 weeks of non-UK and Ireland turnover.

According to TNS Superpanel Tesco's share of the UK grocery market in the 12 weeks to 18 June 2006 was 31.4%. Across all categories, over £1 in every £8 of UK retail sales is spent at Tesco. Tesco also operates overseas, and non-UK revenue for the year to 25 February 2006 was 23% of total revenue.

History

Formation

First self service Tesco, St Albans, England

Tesco started as a one-man business in London's East End. Tesco was founded by Jack Cohen, son of a Polish Jewish tailor. He sold groceries in the markets of the East End from 1919.

The Tesco brand first appeared in 1924. The name derived after Jack Cohen bought a large shipment of tea from T.E. Stockwell (formerly Messrs Torring and Stockwell of Mincing Lane), he made new labels by using the first three letters of the supplier's name and the first two letters of his surname forming the word "TESCO". There is a wide mis-conception that the name is an abbreviation of the name of Jack Cohen's wife, Tessa Cohen, becoming TESCO - however this is wrong as Cohen was never married to a Tessa.

The first Tesco store was opened in 1929 in Burnt Oak, Edgware, London.

Post-war development

The firm was floated on the London Stock Exchange on 23 December 1947.[2] The first Tesco self-service store opened in 1948 in St Albans and is still trading in 2006 as a Tesco Metro store.

The first Tesco supermarket was opened in 1956 in a converted cinema in Maldon, Essex. It has been said that it began own-label canning at the former Goldhanger Fruit Farms factory, sited a few miles from Maldon in the village of Tolleshunt Major, despite Goldhanger being another nearby village. The factory has since been sold. It is now a transport depot, with several other business units on the site.

Tesco's first "superstore" was opened in 1968 in Crawley, West Sussex. The group began selling petrol in 1974 and its annual turnover reached one billion pounds in 1979. Also In 1975 Tesco opened one of its first Hypermarkets in Irlam. The first Hypermarket under the "Extra" name opened in 1997.

Incentives and price-cuts

The founder, Jack Cohen, was an enthusiastic advocate of trading stamps as an inducement for shoppers to patronise his stores: he signed up to Green Shield Stamps in 1963, and became one of the company’s largest clients. [3] But Cohen was a fan of pile it high and sell it cheap, and in the mid-70s Tesco faced many cost problems associated with not properly integrating its purchased chains of stores. When the firm overstretched itself buying the Victor Value stores chain, management consultants were called in to sort out the mess. In 1977 Tesco launched Operation Checkout, an across the board price cutting campaign aimed at countering the threat from the new breed of discounters such as Kwik Save. A key decision was to abandon Green Shield stamps, thus saving some £20m a year and helping to finance price reductions. Other traders didn't like it and attempted to sue Tesco for breaching the retail price maintenance law, but Cohen wasn't charged and the law was eventually abolished. [4]

Expansion

In 1994, the company took over the Scottish supermarket chain William Low. Tesco successfully fought off Sainsbury's for control of the Dundee-based firm, which operated 57 stores north of the border, paving the way for Tesco to expand its weak presence in Scotland. To the present day, Tesco has based its Scottish headquarters at the former Wm. Low offices in Dundee. From small beginnings in Scotland - Inverness was recently branded as "Tescotown"[5][6], since an estimated 50p in every £1 spent on food is believed to be spent in the three Tesco stores within the city[7]. (Nationally, it is estimated that 1 in every £8 is the proportion spent) It introduced a loyalty card branded 'Clubcard' in 1995 and later an Internet shopping service. During the 1990s it expanded into Central Europe, Ireland and East Asia. In July 2001 it became involved in internet grocery retailing in the USA when it obtained a 35% stake in GroceryWorks. In October 2003 it launched a UK telecoms division, comprising of mobile and home phone services, to complement its existing internet service provider business. In August 2004, it also launched a broadband service.

Shopping trolley shelter

Tesco's principal acquisitions, in addition to opening its own stores, include the following chains:

In the late 1990s, the typeface of the logo was changed to the current one shown on the top of the page with stripe reflections underneath the typefaces as Tesco used them on their carrier bags.

Corporate strategy

Tesco's growth over the last two or three decades has involved a transformation of its strategy and image. Its initial success was based on the "Pile it high, sell it cheap" approach of the founder Jack Cohen. The disadvantage of this was that the stores had a poor image with middle-class customers. In the late 1970s Tesco's brand image was so negative that consultants advised the company to change the name of its stores. It did not accept this advice, yet by early 2005 it was the largest retailer in the United Kingdom, with a 29.0% share of the grocery market according to retail analysts TNS Superpanel, compared to the 16.8% share of ASDA and 15.6% share of third-placed Sainsbury's, which had been the market leader until it was overtaken by Tesco in 1995. Key reasons for this success include:

  • An "inclusive offer". This phrase is used by Tesco to describe its aspiration to appeal to upper, medium and low income customers in the same stores. According to Citigroup retail analyst David McCarthy, "They've pulled off a trick that I'm not aware of any other retailer achieving. That is to appeal to all segments of the market"[13]. By contrast ASDA's marketing strategy is focused heavily on value for money, which can undermine its appeal to upmarket customers even though it actually sells a wide range of upmarket products. During its long term dominance of the supermarket sector Sainsbury's retained an image as a high-priced middle class supermarket which considered itself to have such a wide lead on quality that it did not need to compete on price, and was indifferent to attracting lower-income customers into its stores. This strategy has been abandoned since losing the number 1 spot to Tesco and particularly since the arrival of Justin King as CEO in 2004 who has established a new customer-focused strategy closer to that of Tesco.
  • One plank of this inclusivity has been Tesco's use of its own-brand products, including the upmarket "Finest" and low-price "Value". The company has taken the lead in overcoming customer reluctance to purchasing own brands, which are generally considered to be more profitable for a supermarket as it retains a higher portion of the overall profit than it does for branded products.
  • Customer focus: Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive since the mid 1990s, has taken the bold step of trying not to focus on the usual corporate mantra of "maximising shareholder value". The company's mission statement reads, "Our core purpose is, 'To create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty'. We deliver this through our values, 'No-one tries harder for customers', and 'Treat people how we like to be treated'". The underlying aim is of course to make higher profits, but there is a clear focus on customer service at the top level of the company.
  • Diversification: The company has a four-pronged strategy:
    • "Core UK business" - That is, grocery retailing in its home market. It has been innovative and energetic in finding ways to expand, such as making a large-scale move into the convenience-store sector, which the major supermarket chains have traditionally shunned.
    • "Non-food business" - Many United Kingdom supermarket chains have attempted to diversify into other areas, but Tesco has been exceptionally successful. By late 2004 it was widely regarded as a major competitive threat to traditional high street chains in many sectors, from clothing to consumer electronics to health and beauty to media products. Tesco sells an expanding range of own-brand non-food products, including non-food Value and Finest ranges. It also has done quite well in non-food sales in Ireland. CDs are one of the best examples, with Tesco Ireland promising to sell all chart CDs (except compilations) for €14.95 compared with HMV Ireland or Golden Discs selling the same for around €20.
    • "Retailing services" - Tesco has taken the lead in its sector in expanding into areas like personal finance (see below), telecoms (see below), and utilities. It usually enters into joint ventures with major players in these sectors, contributing its customer base and brand strength to the partnership. Other supermarkets in the United Kingdom have done some of the same things, but Tesco has generally implemented them more effectively, and thus made most profit.
    • "International" - Tesco began to expand internationally in 1994, and in the year ending February 2005 its international operations accounted for just over 20% of sales, or about £7 billion (approximately $13 billion). It has focused mainly on developing markets with weak incumbent retailers in Central Europe and the Far East and now in 2006 they are going to branch out in the United States. The medium term aim is to have half of group sales outside the United Kingdom. Tesco rolls out successful UK initiatives in other countries. For example Tesco Personal Finance and Tesco Express convenience stores both operate in several markets.

UK operations

Formats

Tesco's UK stores are divided into five formats, differentiated by size and the range of products sold.

  • Tesco Extra are larger, out-of-town hypermarkets that stock all of Tesco's product ranges. The first Extra opened in 1997 thanks to the Tesco Hypermarkets that opened in 1976 with a flagship store in Irlam (this store was later demolished to make way for a smaller Tesco Extra).
    Tesco Extra, Southport, England
    The 100th store opened in the 2004/05 financial year. The number of these is now being increased by about 20 a year, mainly by conversions from the second category. Typical size 68,000 square feet (6,300 m²). As of January 2006 Tesco's largest UK store is in Slough and is 190,000 square feet (18,300 m²). This store is unusual in being raised on stilts to maximise space utilisation. For comparison a standard Wal-Mart Supercenter in the U.S. is around 200,000 square feet (18,400 m²). Tesco Extra stores can also be on two floors, ground floor for mainly food and first floor for clothing, electronics etc.
  • Tesco stores are standard large supermarkets, stocking groceries plus a much smaller range of non-food goods than Extra. They are referred to as "superstores" for convenience, but this word does not appear on the shops. It is the "standard" Tesco format, accounting for the majority of UK floorspace. Most are located in suburbs of cities or on the edges of large and medium-sized towns. The typical size is 31,000 square feet (2,900 m²).
  • Tesco Metro stores are sized between normal Tesco stores and Tesco Express stores. They are mostly located in city centres and on the high streets of small towns. Typical size is 12,000 square feet (1,100 m²). 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 stores are neighbourhood convenience shops, stocking mainly food with an emphasis on higher-margin products (due to lack of economies of scale) alongside everyday essentials. They are found in busy city centre districts and small shopping precincts in residential areas, and on petrol station forecourts. There were 654 stores at 25 February 2006 year end, with a typical size of 2,100 square feet (190 m²).
  • One Stop are the only category which does not include the word Tesco in its name. These are the very smallest stores. They were part of the T&S Stores business but, unlike many which have been converted to Tesco Express, these will keep their old name however they do stock Tesco branded products and some have Tesco Personal Finance branded cash machines. There are more than 500 of them. One Stop Stores also work on a different pricing and offers system to the other Tesco stores, and generally have later opening hours than all except the 24-hour Tesco Stores. Typical size 1,350 square feet (125 m²).

In May 2005 Tesco announced a trial non-food only format in Manchester and Aberdeen[14], and the first store opened in October 2005:

  • Tesco Homeplus stores offer all of Tesco's ranges except food in warehouse-style units in retail parks. Tesco is trying this format because only 20% of its customers have access to a Tesco Extra, and the company is restricted in how many of its superstores it can convert into Extras and how quickly it can do so. Large units for non-food retailing are much more readily available. It plans to open at least three more Homeplus stores in 2006.[15]

Store summary at 25 February, 2006

As of 25 February 2006, at the end of its 2005/06 financial year Tesco's UK store portfolio was as follows.

Format Number Total area (sq ft) Total area (m²) Mean area (m²) Percentage of space
Tesco Extra 118 8.0 million 740,000 6,270 30.9%
Tesco 445 13.9 million 1,280,000 2,880 53.7%
Tesco Metro 163 1.9 million 180,000 1,100 7.4%
Tesco Express 654 1.4 million 130,000 200 5.4%
One Stop 517 0.7 million 65,000 127 0.3%
Total 1,897 25.9 million 2,395,000 1,260 100%

Tesco Personal Finance

Tesco has a banking arm called Tesco Personal Finance, a 50:50 joint venture with the Royal Bank of Scotland. Products on offer include credits cards, loans, mortgages, savings accounts and several types of insurance, including car, home, life and travel. They are promoted by leaflets in Tesco's stores and through its website. The business made a profit of £139 million for the 52 weeks to 25 February 2005, of which Tesco's share was £70 million.

This move towards the financial sector has diversified the Tesco brand and provides opportunities for growth outside of the retailing sector.

Tesco personal finance offer Loans, car loans, Instant access saving accounts, Business credit card, bonus credit card (the credit card that pays you interest back), Clubcard credit card (where you can earn 1 point for every £4.00 spent on it) and mortgages. Tesco also offer insurance including Travel insurance, pet insurance, car insurance, life insurance, home insurance and car breakdown cover in accosation with green flag. A key marketing strategy is tesco offering clubcard point or free petrol when you buy tesco car insurance.

Telecoms

Tesco operates ISP, mobile phone, home phone and VoIP businesses. These are available to UK residential consumers and marketed via the Tesco website and through Tesco stores.

Though it launched its ISP service in 1998, the firm did not get serious about telecoms until 2003. It has not purchased or built a telecoms network, but instead has pursued a strategy of pairing its marketing strength with the expertise of existing telcoms. In autumn 2003 Tesco Mobile was launched as a joint venture with O2, and Tesco Home Phone created in partnership with Cable & Wireless. Tesco Mobile offers both prepaid and PAYG (pay-as-you-go) accounts. In August 2004 Tesco broadband, an ADSL-based service delivered via BT phone lines, was launched in partnership with NTL. In January 2006, Tesco Internet Phone, a Voice over Internet Protocol, VoIP, service was launched in conjunction with Freshtel of Australia[16].

Tesco announced in December 2004 that it has signed up 500,000 customers to its mobile service in the 12 months since launch. In December 2005, it announced it had one million customers using its mobile service. In April 2006 it announced that it had over one and a half million telecom accounts in total, including mobile, fixed line and broadband accounts. [2]

Internet operations

Tesco has operated on the internet in the UK since 1994 and was the first retailer in the world to offer a robust home shopping service in 1996. Tesco also has Internet 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 Waitrose's home delivery service partner Ocado, this model, which is now also applied by competitor Sainsbury's, allowed rapid expansion with limited investment, but has been criticised by some customers for a high level of substitutions arising from variable stock levels in stores. Nevertheless, it has been popular and is the largest online grocery service in the world.

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

Concerned with poor web response times (at the time of its launch in 1996, broadband was virtually unknown in the UK), Tesco offered a CDROM-based offline 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.

Tesco claimed in its 2005 annual report to be able to serve 98% of the UK population from its 300 participating stores. Tesco delivers to over 1 million households, with more than 120,000 orders per week, by 1,000 local delivery vans. In the financial year ended 25 February 2006 it recorded online sales up 31.9% to £948 million and profit up 54.9% to £56.2 million. [3]

Tesco is expected to launch its first home shopping catalogue in autumn 2006, as another channel for sales of its non-food ranges. This is expected to be integrated with the internet operation, with both channels being branded as "Tesco Direct".[17]

Tesco launched an advertising campaign for its internet phone, marketing the service to customers by offering free calls to all other Tesco internet phone customers.

High-tech services

Tesco offers broadband services.

The company also has a digital photo shop that offers products such as, mugs, shirts, celebration cakes and table mats. The service is powered by pixology.

DVD rental is also an option and can only be accessed via the web. Music downloads are also available.

Operations outside the UK

File:Tesco-lotus-logo.gif
Thailand's Tesco Lotus logo.

Many British retailers that have attempted to build an international business have failed. Tesco has responded to the need to be sensitive to local expectations in foreign countries by entering into joint ventures with local partners, such as Samsung Group in South Korea, and Charoen Pokphand in Thailand (Tesco Lotus), appointing a very high proportion of local personnel to management positions.

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. Tesco regularly makes small acquistions to expand its international businesses. For example in its 2005/06 financial year it made one in Korea, one in Poland and one in Japan. [4]

File:Tesco eger hungary.jpg
Tesco Hypermarket, Eger, Hungary

In September 2005 Tesco announced that it was selling its operations in Taiwan to Carrefour and purchasing Carrefour's stores in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Both companies stated that they were concentrating their efforts in countries where they had strong market positions. Tesco is the grocery market leader in the Republic of Ireland, with a reported November 2005 share of 26.3%[18]. On their Irish website, they also claim to be the largest purchaser of Irish food with an estimated €1.5 billion annually.[19]

United States

On 9 February 2006 Tesco announced that it plans to move into the United States by opening a chain of convenience stores on the West Coast (Arizona, California and Nevada) in 2007.[20]. The initial planned capital expenditure is up to £250 ($436m) million per year. CEO Terry Leahy stated, "We have committed serious resources to developing a format that we believe will be really popular with American consumers". Investors responded with some scepticism to the project, with a small fall in the company's share price on the day of the announcement[21]. In May 2006 the Los Angeles Times reported that Tesco had purchased a 1.4-million-square-foot distribution center in Riverside County, California, near Los Angeles, and planned to acquire another in Phoenix, Arizona. The stores are expected to be around 15,000 square feet - good sized supermarkets in many countries, but a rather odd segment in the U.S. market. [22]

Tesco’s US research did not stop at just shopping with consumers. In east Santa Monica, away from the beaches and tourists, Tesco constructed a dummy store within a warehouse. “Knock down the walls of the warehouse and it could be a standalone fully functioning store,” said a Tesco insider.

Such is the secrecy surrounding Tesco’s US plans that when it first built the store it pretended to be making a film set.

More than 200 focus groups have toured the store, providing feedback. “From what I hear, the ready meals are to-die-for. And Californians are wealthy and busy enough to try them all out,” said a member of the Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce. [5]

Tesco has announced that it has taken a lease on a 32,500 sq ft former Albertsons store in Glassell Park (Los Angeles), suggesting that the company might be planning stores twice as large as previously thought. However, analysts noted that Tesco could divide the Glassell Park site or bring in a concession so that it would be left with a store in line with its plans for a convenience chain.

"It is a strategy of developing local scale. They want to build enough market share to matter," said Darrell Rigby, who heads the global retail practice of consultant Bain & Co. in Boston. "The biggest question for competitors is how many Tesco formats will show up here," Rigby said. The size of the Glassell Park lease indicates that the British retailer most likely has a multifaceted approach to capturing a slice of the U.S. market, Rigby said.

Both Albertsons Inc. and Kroger Co.'s Ralphs chain have closed supermarkets in the Glassell Park neighborhood, leaving the community with one independent grocer and a smattering of small convenience stores. "This has forced us to shop outside of our local area," said George Brauckman, president of the Glassell Park Improvement Assn. If Tesco "is clean and has fresh food and produce, it will do very well," Brauckman said. "People will like the idea that Glassell Park is the location for this new venture."

Stores Worldwide

The following table shows the number of stores, total store size in square feet and sales for Tesco's international operations. The store numbers and floor area figures are as at 25 February 2006 but the turnover figures are for the year ended 31 December 2005, except for the Republic of Ireland data, which is at 25 February 2006, like the UK figures. This information is taken from the 2006 final broker pack.

Country Entered Stores Area (sq ft) Turnover (£ million)
China 2004 39 3,505,000 Note 1
Czech Republic 1996 35 2,575,000 473
France 1992 1 16,000 Note 2
Hungary 1994 87 3,282,000 1,088
Republic of Ireland 1997 91 2,140,000 1,546
Japan 2003 111 385,000 300
Malaysia 2002 14 929,000 151
Poland 1995 105 4,778,000 917
Slovakia 1996 42 2,289,000 393
South Korea 1999 62 4,129,000 2,132
Taiwan Note 3 6 484,000 134
Thailand 1998 219 6,768,000 1,087
Turkey 2003 8 623,000 182

Note 1: The business in China is a joint venture and its turnover is not reported in Tesco's 2006 brokers' pack.

Note 2: Tesco owned a French chain called Catteau between 1992 and 1997. Its existing single store in France is a wine warehouse in Calais, which opened in 1995 and is targeted at British day trippers. Wine is much cheaper in France than in the UK because the duty is far lower. Turnover is not reported separately.

Note 3: In Sept 2005 Tesco announced an asset-swap deal with Carrefour. The six Taiwanese stores will be swapped for 11 hypermarkets in the Czech Republic and four stores in Slovakia.

Note 4:Tesco Stores (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd was incepted on 29 Nov 2001, as a strategic alliance with local conglomerate, Sime Darby Berhad of which the latter holds 30% of total shares.

Financial performance

Tesco is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol TSCO. It also has a secondary listing on the Irish Stock Exchange with the name TESCO PLC.

All figures below are for the Tesco's financial years, which run for 52 or 53 week periods to late February. Up to the 26 February 2006 period end the numbers include non-UK and Ireland results for the calendar year ended on 31 December in the accounting year. For the 25 February 2006 period end the non-UK and Ireland accounting date was brought into line with the UK and Ireland. The figures in the table below include 52 weeks/12 months of turnover for both sides of the business as this provides the best comparative. Including 60 weeks of non-UK and Ireland sales the figures to 25 February 2006 were: revenue £39,454 million; profit before tax £2,235 million; profit for year £1,576 million; basic earnings per share 20.07 pence. In the first quarter of its 2006-07 financial year Tesco's sales were 10.4% up on a year earlier. [6]

52/3 weeks ended Turnover (£m) Profit before tax (£m) Profit for year (£m) Basic earnings per share (p)
25 February 2006 38,300 2,210 1,858 19.70
26 February 2005 33,974 1,962 1,366 17.44
28 February 2004 30,814 1,600 1,100 15.05
22 February 2003 26,337 1,361 946 13.54
23 February 2002 23,653 1,201 830 12.05
24 February 2001 20,988 1,054 767 11.29
26 February 2000 18,796 933 674 10.07
27 February 1999 17,158 842 606 9.14
28 February 1998 16,452 760 532 8.12

As of its 2006 year end Tesco was the fourth largest retailer in the world. The three largest are Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Home Depot. METRO was only just behind and might move ahead again if the euro strengthens against the pound, but METRO's sales include many billions of wholesale turnover, and its retail turnover is much less than Tesco's.

At 25 February 2006 Tesco operated 1,897 stores in the UK (25.9 million square feet, 2.395 million m²) and 814 outside the UK (32.8 million square feet, 3.02 million m²).

Tesco's market capitalisation on 31 December 2005 was £26.035 billion ($44.8 billion), which was the largest of any retailer based outside the United States.

Controversy

File:Tescopoly logo.png
Friends Of The Earth campaign logo, in their bid to highlight their claim of a Tesco monopoly

Tesco is increasingly a target for people in the UK who disapprove of the effects supermarket chains can have on farmers, suppliers and smaller competitors:

  • The group has been criticised for its tactics, including allegedly misleading consumers with a "phoney" price cut [23] However, while individual cases can be cited, Tesco — along with the other major supermarkets — is experiencing price deflation.
  • Tesco's 2004 Adminstore acquisition led to local and national protests[24]. Tesco's other store openings and expansions are sometimes contested by campaign groups. These campaigns have not hindered Tesco's expansion programme very much.
  • Another point of controversy is the recent expansion of Tesco into the convenience store market. When a company controls more than 25% of a business sector in the UK, it is usually blocked from buying other companies in that sector (but not from increasing its market share through organic growth). The Office of Fair Trading currently treats supermarkets and convenience stores as two distinct sectors — although this definition has been challenged by smaller retailers, including the Association of Convenience Stores[25].
  • In Thailand a rocket was fired at one branch of Tesco but it accidentally hit an Israeli trade office in an adjacent building. Another controversy arose when the Royal Thai Police alleged that Thai soldiers operating as Tesco security intimidated a rural boy into poisoning chocolates as revenge for having their contracts revoked by the company.[26]
  • Tesco is also censured by those who think that it infringes upon the interests of farmers and smaller suppliers. The company responds by claiming that it follows industry-best practice and sources locally where it can to meet customer demand. In March 2005 the Office of Fair Trading published an audit of the workings of its code of practice on relationships between supermarkets and their suppliers. It reported that no official complaints had been received against Tesco or any of the other major supermarkets, but the supermarkets' critics, including Friends of the Earth, contested that suppliers were prevented from complaining by fear of losing business, and called for more rigorous supervision of the supermarkets. A further report by the Office of Fair Trading in August 2005 concluded that the aims of the Code of Practice were being met[citation needed].
  • In May 2004, Tesco announced it was reducing sick pay in an attempt to reduce levels of unplanned absence, which led to concerns over employees continuing to work despite poor health (faced with a reduced income otherwise).[27].
  • In January 2005, Tesco faced criticism for their testing of RFID tags used to collect information on product movement in pilot stores. Critics label the tags "Spy Chips" and allege that they are to be used to collect information on customers' shopping habits.[28].
  • In December 2005, a committee of UK MPs produced a report accusing Tesco of "riding roughshod over planning rules".[29] The accusation stemmed from the company's building of a store in Stockport that was 20% larger than the company actually had permission to build. In September 2006, subsequent (retrospective) planning permission was requested by Tesco but refused.[30]
  • In March 2006 the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) proposed to refer the UK grocery market to the Competition Commission for a new inquiry and called for the Commission to be thorough but swift in its investigation[31].
  • The stores' signage displays poor grammar. Each store advertises (among other items) "mens magazines", "girls toys", "kids books", "womens shoes" and "Chart DVD's". The author Bill Bryson lambasts Tesco for apostrophe misuse in his book Troublesome Words, stating, "The mistake is inexcusable and those who make it are linguistic Neanderthals." In August 2006 Tesco released a television advertising campaign to persuade people to use fewer non-recyclable plastic carrier bags, which included the grammatically incorrect line "use less bags" (see grammar article)
  • In September 2006, Tesco came to an agreement with Tyrrells Crisps to stop selling grey market supplies. Tyrrells was started by potato farmer Will Chase after big supermarkets power of purchasing almost put his farm out of business. He started Tyrrells to gain greater margin by selling directly, and only sold through delicatessans and Waitrose supermarket. After Tesco bought supplies from the grey market, Chase took legal action and Tesco subsequently backed down.[32]

See also

Tesco has entered into an agreement with KKR to take control of Coles Supermarkets Australia, all stores will be rebranded before the end of 2007

References

  1. ^ "Tesco DVD Rental". Tesco. Retrieved 2006-07-27.
  2. ^ londonstockexchange.com profile Accessed 9 July 2006.
  3. ^ http://cep.lse.ac.uk/seminarpapers/24-05-04%20-%20Background%20paper%20by%20Geoffrey%20Owen.pdf
  4. ^ http://www.dg.dial.pipex.com/comment/z051128c.shtml
  5. ^ "Tesco accused of 'near monopoly'". BBC. January 17, 2006.
  6. ^ "Inverness : Tescotown". Retrieved 2006-03-13.
  7. ^ Lorna Martin (January 1, 2006). "The supermarket that ate a town". The Observer.
  8. ^ "Convenience boost for Tesco - Tesco PLC acquires One Stop, Day and Nite convenience stores from T. and S. Stores PLC". Eurofood. 7 November, 2002. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ "Proposed acquisition by Tesco PLC of T & S Stores PLC".  Decision of the Office of Fair Trading . 9 December, 2002. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  10. ^ "Tesco buys Japanese retailer". BBC News. June 10, 2003.
  11. ^ "Tesco snaps up Cullens and Europa". BBC News. 22 January, 2004. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ "Anticipated acquisition by Tesco plc of 45 stores from Adminstore Ltd".  Decision of the Office of Fair Trading . 5 March, 2004. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  13. ^ Hannah Liptrot (June 3, 2005). "Tesco: Supermarket superpower". BBC.
  14. ^ "Tesco announces non-food store trials". Retrieved 2006-03-13.
  15. ^ "Tesco PLC Preliminary Results 2005/6" (PDF). Tesco. Retrieved 2006-06-25.
  16. ^ "Tesco launches net calls service". BBC News. January 19, 2006.
  17. ^ Tesco gears up for catalogue drive in autumn, retail-week.com, 21 July 2006.
  18. ^ "Tesco still commanding highest market share". RTE Business. December 6, 2006.
  19. ^ "About Tesco Ireland". Tesco Ireland.
  20. ^ "Tesco to enter United States". Retrieved 2006-03-13.
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  22. ^ Britain's Tesco to Open Its First U.S. Stores in Southland, Los Angeles Times 20 May, 2006. [1]
  23. ^ "Revealed: the secret of Tesco's 'phoney' price war". Sunday Times. September 19, 2004.
  24. ^ "Regulators continue to mull Adminstore acquisition". Retrieved 20 August 2006.
  25. ^ "Association of Convenience Stores". Retrieved 2006-03-13.
  26. ^ "Phyakrut Newspaper หนุ่มอังกฤษดับเครื่องชนเทสโก้-โลตัส". Retrieved 2006-03-13.
  27. ^ Sarah Ryle (May 16, 2004). "Tesco axes sick pay to reduce 'days off' cheats". The Guardian.
  28. ^ Bill Wilson (January 27, 2005). "Big Brother at the supermarket till?". BBC News.
  29. ^ Susie Mesure (December 8, 2005). "Tesco 'riding roughshod' over planning rules, MPs are told". The Independent.
  30. ^ "Tesco planning permission refused". BBC. September 13, 2006.
  31. ^ "OFT proposes to refer grocery market to Competition Commission". Retrieved 2006-03-13.
  32. ^ "Tesco backs down from fight over Tyrrells' crisps". Retrieved 2006-09-17.
  • Clive Humby, Terry Hunt and Tim Phillips - Scoring Points: How Tesco Is Winning Customer Loyalty (2003) ISBN 0-7494-3578-X

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