http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/markets/2788089/A-history-of-Tesco-The-rise-of-Britains-biggest-supermarket.html
2008 Article
1919 Opens grocery stall
1929 Opens first stall
1947 Stockmarket float
1979 Annual sales reach £1bn
1982 Annual sales reach £2bn
1995 Clubcard Launched
1995 Tesco becomes UK's largest food retailer
2005 Profits top £2bn
Chief Executive: Sir Terry Leahy
Revenue (2007) £46.6bn
Profits (2007) 2,47bn
Exployees: 273,000
World domination - Source: Tesco
Country Year of entry Stores
UK 1919 1198
Hungary 1994 101
Poland 1995 280
Czech Rep 1996 84
Slovakia 1997 95
Rep of Ireland 1997 95
Thailand 1998 370
South Korea 1999 91
Malaysia 2001 19
Japan 2003 109
Turkey 2003 30
China 2004 47
Total 47
Tesco showed its expansionary zeal early on by buying up rival shops. In the 1950s the retailer bought 70 Williams stores and 200 Harrow stores, followed by 97 Charles Philips stores and the Victor Value chain in the early 1960s.
During the 60s supermarkets started to expand rapidly by selling more products in ever larger stores.
In 1961 Tesco Leicester entered the Guiness Book of Records as the largest store in Europe and in 1968 Tesco opened its first 'superstore' in Crawley, West Sussex.
Supermarkets revolutionised the way people shopped and by the 1970s Tesco was building a national store network to cover the whole of the UK, which it continues to expand to this day, while also diversifying into other products.
In 1974 Tesco opened its first petrol stations, and would become the UK's largest independent petrol retailer
In 1987 Tesco successfully completed a hostile takeover of supermarket rival Hillards for £220m.
In the 1990s Tesco continued to tighten its grip on the UK with more store openings and an agressive marketing campaign in an attempt to overtake Sainsbury's as the UK's leading grocer.
In 1992, the company launched is slogan 'every little helps', followed by the Tesco Value range in 1993. This was followed by the launch of the Tesco Clubcard scheme in 1995, helping Tesco to overtake rival Sainsbury's as the UK's largest food retailer
Tesco.com was launched in 2000 and the supermarket continued to expand its range of products, which now includes clothes, electricals and personal finance products. In 2004 Tesco entered the broadband market.
Two years ago, in 2006, the retailer announced ambitious plans to open stores in the US under the name 'Fresh and Easy' and funded by existing resources.
Every little hurts...
As the supermarket giant has grown, so too has the number of places in the UK dubbed 'Tesco town'. In Inverness more than 50p in every pound spent on food by the city's 66,000 residents is done so at a Tesco checkout and similar dominance in other towns has sparked controversy.
Because of their size, supermarkets have been accused by some of abusing their position by forcing smaller local shops out of business. According to non-profit organisation
Ethical Network, local communities could be losing inward investment of up to £100bn every year because of supermarket centralisation.
