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1919
Jack Cohen began selling surplus groceries from a stall in the East End of London in 1919. He left the Royal Flying Corp at the end of the Great War and used his demob money to buy the first day's stock.
At the end of the first day Jack Cohen made a profit of £1 on sales of £4.
1924
The first own-brand product sold by Jack was Tesco Tea - before the company was called Tesco. The name comes from the initials of TE Stockwell, who was a partner in the firm of tea suppliers, and CO from Jack's surname.
1929
Jack Cohen opened the first Tesco store in Burnt Oak, Edgware, north London. The store sold dry goods and the first ever branded product, which, unsurprisingly, was Tesco Tea!
1934
Jack Cohen bought a plot of land at Angel Road, Edmonton, north London to build a new headquarters and warehouse. It was the first modern food warehouse in the country and introduced new ideas for stock control.
1937
The 1930s saw Jack Cohen growing the business by buying stores in the expanding London suburbs.
1947
Tesco Stores (Holdings) was floated on the stock exchange with a share price of 25 pence.
1948
Jack Cohen decided to venture into self-service following a research visit to North America. The first of these new stores opened in St Albans, Hertfordshire in 1948 with a mixed reaction from customers at first. The picture shows colleagues delivering goods to the store.
1955
We bought 19 Burnards stores. Between 1955 and 1960 over 500 new stores were purchased.
1958
The first supermarket was opened in Maldon, Essex. The store included a counter service selling cheese, butter and meats weighed by sales assistants.
1960
We started selling household goods and clothing in our stores across the UK. In the same year, we acquired 212 branches of Irwin stores in the north of England.
1963
Green shield stamps were introduced. Stamps collected at the checkout could be exchanged for a range of goods from a catalogue.
1968
The term 'superstore' was first used when we opened our store in Crawley, West Sussex. It was 40,000 sq. ft. in size and sold food and non-food goods. In the same year, we bought the Victor Value chain.
1973
We opened a new head office in Cheshunt, called New Tesco House.
1974
We opened our first petrol stations at major sites across the UK.
1977
In 1977 the Green Shield Stamps were phased out and replaced by a major price-cutting initiative called 'Checkout at Tesco' . This advert helped launch this campaign.
1979
Our founder, Jack Cohen, passed away.
1982
For the first time, we introduced computerised checkouts to our stores.
1985
After a successful period as our Managing Director, Sir Ian MacLaurin became Chairman of Tesco.
1989
Dudley Moore starred in a high profile ad campaign highlighting our great range of high quality products.
1992
Computers for Schools was launched. Since 1992 the scheme has raised £185 million worth of equipment for schools around the UK.
1993
The Every Little Helps strap line was launched. The new campaign attracted 1.3 million new customers between 1993 - 1995.
1994
The first two Tesco Express stores opened in London. Within a very short time space 13 more had been opened. In this audio clip, Keith Macaulay talks about the evolution of the Express format. audio clips © British Library
1995
We entered the Hungarian market in 1995 through the acquisition of existing retailer S-Market’s 26 stores in the north-west of Hungary. This was our first international business.
1996
The UK business started 24 hour trading to help our customers to shop whenever they wanted to.
1997
We opened our first Extra format store in Pitsea, Essex.
1998
We entered Thailand operating under the Tesco Lotus brand.
1998
Our business in South Korea opened in 1999 in partnership with Samsung. Operating under the Homeplus brand, we now have more than 450 stores consisting of both large hypermarkets and small Express stores.
2000
Tesco.com was launched. Since 2000 Tesco.com has grown to serve over 500,000 customers each week. Listen to Gary Sargeant talk about the evolution of the service. audio clips © British Library
2001
We launched the Florence and Fred clothing range. The video shows one of the adverts developed to promote the brand.
2002
Since entering Malaysia in 2002 we have opened 45 stores across the country with a combined floor space of almost 4m sq ft. We operate in the country in partnership with local conglomerate, Sime Darby, who hold a 30% stake in the business.
2003
We entered the Turkish market in 2003 through the acquisition of five Kipa stores.
2004
We entered China in 2004 and have built up a network of more than 100 stores across provinces along the Eastern Seaboard.
2006
Tesco Direct, our catalogue business, was launched. The catalogue provides an extensive range of electrical appliances, home furnishings, toys and much more.
2007
In 2007 we entered the US under the name Fresh & Easy, opening stores in southern California, Arizona and Nevada. Today we operate nearly 200 stores and employ over 5,000 people. In March 2011 we opened our first stores in northern California around San Francisco and the Bay Area.
2008
We acquired 36 hypermarkets in South Korea from Homever.
2009
We set out our plans to build a full service retail bank after buying out the RBS 50% stake in Tesco Personal Finance. Following the acquisition, Tesco Personal Finance became known as Tesco Bank.
2010
A new Clubcard app was launched in the UK, which gave customers a new way to swipe their cards in store.
2011
The new Tesco Asia Academy opened in Incheon, South Korea. Each year 24,000 staff across Asia will be trained at the Academy. This fantastic facility gives colleagues the opportunity to learn in some of the world's best training facilities.
