PILE IT HIGH, SELL IT CHEAP

TESCO traces its roots back to 1919 when 19-year-old Jack Cohen began selling groceries from a stall in London’s East End.

He came up with the Tesco name in 1924 after buying a shipment of tea to start selling his first own-label products. Cohen used the initials from the tea supplier TE Stockwell and combined them with ‘Co’ from his surname. Marrying Sarah ‘Cissie’ Fox in the same year, he opened the first Tesco in Edgware in 1929 and by 1939 owned 100 stores. Father-oftwo Cohen, knighted in 1969, became known for his motto ‘pile it high and sell it cheap’. He died aged 80.