Tesco: Presenting an Innovative Way of Doing Retailing

Tesco is a multinational company engaged in grocery and general merchandise retailing. The company is based in Cheshunt, UK. It is ranked as the third biggest retailer in the world in terms of revenues and second in terms of profits.

Tesco’s increasing market share is the result of the company’s emphasis on their core business policies of more choices at cheaper prices thereby providing better value of the convenience of customers. With its 702 stores, Tesco is the biggest food retailer in UK.

The company is also into non-food merchandise. Its non-food business offers home entertainment, electrical, cookshop, homeshop, white goods and furniture. Some of these non-food items are found only in large stores but Tesco is developing a brand that would carry all these non-food stuff in all Tesco stores.

To glue its position in the retail industry, Tesco has launched Tesco.com to become the leader in internet grocery retailing. The site is able to reach over 90% of UK’s population. The results are overwhelming: up to 70,000 deliveries each week. The coverage of Tesco.com is growing as the service is also introduced in South Korea and Ireland.

New growth markets are emerging for Tesco in other parts of the world. Stores in Malaysia, Ireland, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary were opened between 2000 and 2002. These international stores sum up to 923 stores in 10 countries.

Tesco has been in partnership with manufacturers. Tesco International Sourcing works directly with manufacturers to ensure competitive prices and wide differentiated product lines with maintaining their highest quality standards. The Tesco International Sourcing has helped broaden Tesco’s portfolio of food and non-food products.

Tesco shares are traded on the London Stock Exchange. Its market capitalization is reported at £24.4 billion on January 15, 2012. Tesco is ranked as the 15^th largest company listed on the London Stock Exchange.