page_title: Tesco
section_title: Diversification
hierarchical_section_title: Tesco / History / Diversification
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Tesco w Tomaszowie Mazowieckim, przy ulicy Warszawskiej
context_page_description: Tesco plc, trading as Tesco, is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer with headquarters in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in the world measured by revenues. It has shops in seven countries across Asia and Europe, and is the market leader of groceries in the UK, Ireland, Hungary and Thailand.
  Tesco was founded in 1919 by Jack Cohen as a group of market stalls in Hackney, London. 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 shop opened in 1931 in Burnt Oak, Barnet. His business expanded rapidly, and by 1939 he had over 100 Tesco shops across the country.
  Tesco has expanded globally since the early 1990s, with operations in 11 other countries in the world. The company pulled out of the US in 2013, but as of 2018 continues to see growth elsewhere.
context_section_description: The company started to expand the range of products it sold during the 1960s to include household goods and clothing under the Delamare brand, and in 1974 opened its first petrol station.
  In July 2001, Tesco became involved in internet grocery retailing in the US when it obtained a 35% stake in GroceryWorks. In 2002, Tesco purchased 13 HIT hypermarkets in Poland. It also made a major move into the UK's convenience shop market with its purchase of T & S Stores, owner of 870 convenience shops in the One Stop, Dillons and Day & Nite chains in the UK.
  In June 2003, Tesco purchased the C Two-Network in Japan. It also acquired a majority stake in the Turkish supermarket chain Kipa. In January 2004, Tesco acquired Adminstore, owner of 45 Cullens, Europa, and Harts convenience shops, in and around London.
  In Thailand, Tesco Lotus was a joint venture of the Charoen Pokphand Group and Tesco, but facing criticism over the growth of hypermarkets CP Group sold its Tesco Lotus shares in 2003. In late 2005 Tesco acquired the 21 remaining Safeway/BP shops after Morrisons dissolved the Safeway/BP partnership. In mid-2006 Tesco purchased an 80% stake in Casino's Leader Price supermarkets in Poland, which were then rebranded as small Tesco shops.
  On 9 February 2006, Tesco announced plans to move into the United States by opening a chain of small format groceries in the Western states (Arizona, California, and Nevada) in 2007 named Fresh & Easy.
  In 2010, Tesco started funding a small film studio intended to produce Tesco exclusive direct-to-DVD films. The first film was released on 6 September called Paris Connections, based on a popular novel by Jackie Collins.
caption: Tesco in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "2560", "Image ImageLength": "1536", "Image Make": "SAMSUNG", "Image Model": "SM-G360F", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "G360FXXU1BQB1", "Image DateTime": "2018:08:26 17:11:54", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "238", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "3002", "Thumbnail ImageWidth": "480", "Thumbnail ImageLength": "288", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3150", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "14315", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/297", "EXIF FNumber": "13/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2018:08:26 17:11:54", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2018:08:26 17:11:54", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "821/100", "EXIF ApertureValue": "63/25", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "673/100", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "69/25", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "331/100", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2560", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1536", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2972", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "A05QFHI01NA"}