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Period: to
Tesco
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Birth of the Business
The company was founded in 1919 by Jack Cohen as a group of market stalls. -
Business named
The Tesco name first appeared after Cohen purchased a shipment of tea from T. E. Stockwell and combined those initials with the first two letters of his surname -
First store opens
First Tesco store opened in 1929 in Burnt Oak, Middlesex -
A business that is booming
The business expanded rapidly, and by 1939 he had over 100 Tesco stores across the country. -
Tesco stock released
Tesco was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1947 as Tesco Stores (Holdings) Limited. -
First self service store
The first self-service store opened in St Albans in 1956 -
First supermarket opened
First supermarket opened in Maldon in 1956 -
70 stores purchased
Tesco purchased 70 Williamson's stores -
200 more stores purchased
200 Harrow Stores outlets -
Tesco purchases more stores
Tesco buys 212 Irwins stores -
97 stores
97 Charles Phillips stores purchased by Tesco -
Hillards take over
May 1987 Tesco completed its hostile takeover of the Hillards chain of 40 supermarkets in the North of England for £220 million. -
Beating Sainsburys to Willaim Low
Tesco took over the supermarket chain William Low, successfully fighting off Sainsbury's for control of the Dundee-based firm, which operated 57 stores -
Telecom
Tesco launched a UK telecoms division, comprising mobile and home phone services -
Making online shopping profitable
Tesco was the only food retailer to make online shopping profitable -
Tescotown
Inverness was branded as "Tescotown", because well over 50p in every £1 spent on food is believed to be spent in its three Tesco stores -
Tesco venture brands
Tesco launched a range of Tesco Venture Brands -
Everyday value
Tesco re-launched its own brand Tesco value range as 'Tesco Everyday Value', with new packaging and recipes. -
Horse meat scandal
During EU-wide meat adulteration scandal, it emerged that some 'value' burgers sold by Tesco contained up to 29% horse meat.[38] In February 2013 Tesco reported that their value bolognaise contained 60% horsemeat.