Kentish Express Ashford & District
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Tesco founder Jack Cohen (right) was born in modest circumstances in London’s East End, a small, Jewish boy who struggled at school.
In 1917, he enlisted, surviving the sinking of HMS Osmanieh and being struck with malaria.
In 1919, with no job, and few qualifications, he embarked on his market stall venture.
It was a decade before he opened his first shop, and nearly four until the first supermarket.
After marrying in 1924, he invested the wedding gift money into wholesale.
By 1929, Tesco had drummed up enough funds to set up a store in Edgware. Roughly 7,000 would follow.
Cohen, who worked liked a Trojan, was said to have expressed himself almost too regularly, and made tie pins bearing the acronym YCDBSOYA (‘you can’t do business sitting on your **** ’), which he would distribute to everyone he met.
He began stacking his products, rather than selling them in bundles.
When the Second World War was declared, Tesco was running 100 shops, and the policy of bulk-buying proved useful on the introduction of rationing.
In the late 1940s, profits suddenly dropped off a cliff. Cohen blamed rising commodity prices, wages and overheads - and the company responded with one of its most telling masterstrokes.
‘Self service’ - customers browsing the aisles themselves, rather than queuing at the shopkeeper’s counter - may seem obvious today, but to post-war shoppers, it was a revelation.
A willing empire-builder, Tesco picked off competitors as much as it did vacant shopfronts.
The 1970s brought more innovation - most notably the move into petrol stations - but ended on a note of sadness, when founder Jack Cohen died in 1979.
He left the company in good hands, and the 1980s and 1990s were arguably Tesco’s golden years.
In the mid-90s, Tesco finally overtook Sainsbury’s to become the UK’s largest retailer.
Then, Sir Terry Leahy - or ‘Terry Tesco’, as he was known entered the scene.
Born on a Merseyside council estate, he joined the company at the age of 23, working his way up to chief executive in 1997.
During a previous stint as marketing director, he was widely credited with the success of the Clubcard, and as chief executive, pushed global expansion.
One popular statistic claimed that £1 in every £7 spent on the British high street passed through Terry’s tills.
When he finally handed in his key card in 2011, Tesco was the third largest retailer in the world.
Shortly after, however, Tesco’s recent troubles began.
After ceding ground to a resurgent and competitively-priced Asda, in 2012, Tesco posted their first drop in profits in almost 20 years.
The decline continued with snowballing profit warnings, a public spat with supplier L’Oreal, and in 2014, the revelation that Tesco had overestimated its half-yearly profits by £250 million.
Over the years, Tesco has adapted and re-adapted to stay ahead of customers’ wants and needs, and the chain still boasts the lion’s share of the market.
Last year saw the launch of Jack’s - a new range of stores channelling their founder’s mission statement by beating the lowest prices of their of rivals.
Its success, or otherwise, and that of its parent company, will be closely monitored.