Product Code Database
Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Sir Jack Cohen in Hackney, London, in 1919. In 2011, it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in the world measured by revenues. It is the market leader of groceries in the UK (where it has a market share of around 28.4%). As well as the United Kingdom, Tesco has stores in Czechia, Ireland, Slovakia, the Isle of Man and Hungary.
Since the 1960s, Tesco has diversified into areas such as the retailing of books, clothing, electronics, furniture, toys, petrol, software, financial services, telecommunications and internet services. In the 1990s, Tesco re-positioned itself from being a downmarket high-volume low-cost retailer, attempting to attract a range of social groups with its low-cost "Tesco Value" range (launched 1993) and premium "Tesco Finest" range.
Tesco is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
After experimenting with his first permanent indoor market stall at Tooting in November 1930, Jack Cohen opened the first Tesco shop in September 1931 at 54 Watling Avenue, Burnt Oak, Edgware, Middlesex.Maurice Corina: “Pile It High Sell It Cheap: The Authorised Biography of Sir Jack Cohen”, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1971 Tesco was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1947 as Tesco Stores (Holdings) Limited. The first self-service shop opened in St Albans in 1948 (which remained operational until 2010 before relocating to larger premises on the same street, with a period as a Tesco Metro), and the first supermarket in Maldon in 1956.
Jack Cohen's business motto was "pile it high and sell it cheap", to which he added an internal motto of "YCDBSOYA" (You Can't Do Business Sitting On Your Arse) which he used to motivate his sales force.
In May 1987, Tesco completed its hostile takeover of the Hillards chain of 40 supermarkets in the North of England for £220 million.
In 1994, the company took over the supermarket chain William Low after fighting off Sainsbury's for control of the Dundee-based firm, which operated 57 shops. This paved the way for Tesco to expand its presence in Scotland, in which its presence was weaker than in England.
Tesco introduced a loyalty card, branded 'Clubcard' in 1995, and later an Internet shopping service. In 1996, the typeface of the logo was changed to the current version with stripe reflections underneath, whilst the corporate font used for shop signage was changed from the familiar "typewriter" font that had been used since the 1970s. Overseas operations were introduced in the same year. Terry Leahy assumed the role of Chief Executive in February 1997.
In March 1997, Tesco purchased the retail arm of Associated British Foods, which consisted of the Quinnsworth, Stewarts and Crazy Prices chains in Ireland and Northern Ireland, and associated businesses, for £640 million. The deal was approved by the European Commission in May 1997.
The company was the subject of a letter bomb campaign lasting five months from August 2000 to February 2001, as a bomber calling himself "Sally" sent letter bombs to Tesco customers and demanded that Clubcards be modified to be capable of withdrawing money from cash machines.
In 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 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 acquired a majority stake in the Turkish supermarket chain Tesco 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 , 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 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. Tesco pulled out of the United States market in 2013, following performance issues.
In 2013, Tesco pulled out of its US market (Fresh & Easy) stores in April, after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, at a reported cost of £1.2 billion. In September, Tesco announced that it would sell the business to Ronald Burkle's Yucaipa Companies for an undisclosed amount. That same month, Tesco launched its first tablet computer, a seven-inch model called Tesco Hudl. Tesco also purchased the restaurant and cafe chain Giraffe for £48.6 million.
In 2015, Tesco sold its Blinkbox on-demand video service and its fixed-line telephone and broadband business to TalkTalk Group. In January, Tesco sold the Blinkbox Music streaming service to now-defunct Guvera, and confirmed it would close its Blinkbox Books service by the end of February.
In 2016, Tesco confirmed it was seeking to sell Dobbies Garden Centres, Giraffe Restaurants, and Harris + Hoole to concentrate on its main supermarket business.
In 2017, Tesco reached an agreement to merge with Britain's biggest wholesaler Booker Group. There were concerns over market dominance with Tesco being Britain's largest food retailer and Booker being the UK's largest wholesaler. In April, the company sold its in-shop opticians' business to Vision Express. In June, Tesco announced a major cost-cutting initiative that would reduce the company's workforce by over 1,200 workers. Key reductions included over a quarter of its employees in Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, and the closure of the call centre in Cardiff. The company hoped to reduce costs by £1.5 billion.
In 2019, Tesco announced another cost-cutting initiative that would close the food counters in 90 stores, affecting around 9,000 workers. In October 2019, Tesco announced that CEO Dave Lewis would step down in 2020, and would be succeeded by Ken Murphy.
In February 2020, Tesco announced the sale of its 20% stake in its Chinese joint venture with China Resources for £257 million. The joint venture, created in 2014, had taken over all of Tesco’s stores in China. In March 2020, Tesco announced the sale of its operations in Thailand and Malaysia, comprising 2,000 stores (including Tesco Lotus supermarkets), to Charoen Pokphand Group for $10 billion. In June 2020, Tesco announced the sale of its operations in Poland, comprising nearly 300 stores, to Salling Group for £165 million.
In 2023, Tesco acquired all nine Shoprite shops on the Isle of Man from the Nicholson family who had built the chain up since 1972.
Its supports LGBTQ+ charities and organizations, and has made substantial donations to them. It regularly appears in Pride marches.
| Large Store (Extra and Superstore) | 809 | 31,092,000 | 66.8% |
| Convenience (Express) | 2,094 | 5,615,000 | 12.1% |
| Dotcom only | 6 | 716,000 | 1.5% |
| One Stop | 730 | 1,205,000 | 2.6% |
| Booker | 190 | 7,951,000 | 17.1% |
| Total | 3,829 | 46,579,000 | 100.00% |
In common with other towns, such as Warrington, the St Helens shop, which at is one of the biggest in England, was developed on the same site as the town's new rugby league stadium.
Tesco operates a number of in-shop cafes. Tesco began to introduce new restaurants in its shops from 2013 under the "Decks Carvery" brand.
They are located in busy city-centre districts, small shopping precincts in residential areas, small towns, and villages, and on Esso petrol station forecourts. In 2010, it became known that Tesco was operating Express pricing, charging more in its Express branches than in its other stores. A spokesperson said that this was "because of the difference in costs of running the smaller shops".
In 1998, Tesco and Esso (part of ExxonMobil) formed a business alliance that included several petrol filling stations on lease from Esso, with Tesco operating the attached shops under its Express format. Esso operates the forecourts and sells fuel via the Tesco shop. As of 2013, there were 200 joint Tesco Express/Esso sites in the UK.
In January 2023, Tesco opened its sixth Urban Fulfilment Centre (UFC) at Bar Hill Extra in Cambridgeshire. UFCs are attached to large stores and serve as dedicated picking hubs for home delivery and click and collect orders.
Cardholders can collect one Clubcard point for every £1 (or one point for €1 in Ireland and Slovakia or 1 point for 1zł in Poland) they spend in a Tesco shop, or at Tesco.com, and 1 point per £2 on fuel (not in Slovakia). Customers can also collect points by paying with a Tesco Credit Card, or by using Tesco Mobile, Tesco Homephone, Tesco Broadband, selected Tesco Personal Finance products, or through Clubcard partners, E.ON and Avis. Each point equates to 1p in shops when redeemed, or up to four times that value when used with Clubcard deals (offers for holidays, day trips, etc.) Clubcard points (UK & IE) can also be converted to Avios and Virgin Atlantic frequent flyer miles.
The business has attracted some controversy, as the prices of groceries in these shops, often situated in more impoverished areas, can be higher than nearby Tesco branded shops, highlighted in The Times 22 March 2010: "Britain's biggest supermarket uses its chain of 639 One Stop convenience shops–which many customers do not realize it owns–to charge up to 14 per cent more for goods than it does in Tesco-branded shops."
Tesco responded to the article stating "It is a separate business within the Tesco Group, with its own supply chain and distribution network. One Stop shops offer a different range to Express shops and its operating costs are different. One Stop's price strategy is to match to its nearest competitor, Costcutter, and is frequently cheaper."
In the UK, F&F had its own website until 2016 when it was folded into Tesco Direct - which itself folded in August 2018. After this, F&F had no online UK presence until it partnered with Next PLC a year later. Tesco launched a scaled-down F&F on Tesco.com soon after its deal with Next.
Tesco operated a home telephone and broadband business. Its broadband service was launched in August 2004 to complement its existing internet service provider business, providing an ADSL-based service delivered via BT Group phone lines. In January 2015, Tesco sold its home telephone and broadband business, together with Blinkbox, to TalkTalk for around £5 million. Its customers were transferred by 2016.
Unlike Tesco's grocery operations, Tesco Marketplace products are fulfilled and delivered directly by the online sellers. Using third-party sellers, the marketplace format allows customers to purchase from a range of categories including pet care, beauty, homeware, DIY, gardening, toys, baby and toddler, electrics, furniture, and many more. Customers can also collect Clubcard points with purchases from Tesco Marketplace.
Although not in a warehouse-style format, the shops were located on high streets and shopping centres and stocked similar items to Homeplus shops. In both cases, this was because another part of the shopping centre had a Tesco Superstore that stocked food items only. By 2014, the number of Homeplus shops in the United Kingdom had reached 12. The newest shop opened in Chester in July 2009. In 2012 it was reported that Tesco was looking to close the business to focus on groceries. Tesco closed six Homeplus shops in March 2015, and the remaining six shops closed in June 2015.
In May 2021, Tesco retired the brand, as only 31% of customers were using the stores for larger shops. 89 locations converted to the Tesco Express format. The remaining 58 adopted the standard superstore format.
As of 2025, Tesco Ireland still operates Metro stores as part of its business.
| Czech Republic | 1996 | 322 | 538,559 (5,797,000) | 1,673 (18,003) | 3 |
| Hungary | 1994 | 198 | 678,285 (7,301,000) | 3,202 (34,439) | 2 |
| Ireland | 1997 | 148 | 319,586 (3,440,000) | 2,333 (25,109) | 1 |
| Slovakia | 1996 | 154 | 336,959 (3,627,000) | 2,808 (30,225) | 7 |
| United Kingdom | 1919 | 3,433 | 3,585,314 (38,592,000) | 1,205 (12,972) | 27 |
| Total (not including UK) | 822 | 6,851,321 (73,747,000) | Mean: 2,029 (21,844) | 84 | |
| Total (including UK) | 4,255 | 10,436,635 (112,339,000) | Mean: 1,643 (17,688) | 57 |
Tesco has been a market leader within the Czech Republic and is one of the largest supermarket chains in the country, operating over 322 stores by 2012, upwards of 300 by 2007. Tesco is keen to expand non-food items and has already opened petrol stations and offers personal finance services in the Czech Republic.
Tesco Slovakia caused controversy amongst the Slovak government when it was found to have come foul of food safety laws in 2006.
In April 2010 the first Tesco Extra in Central Europe opened in Bratislava – Petržalka, Slovakia as part of a pilot project for Tesco in the region, including the first self-service cash flow in Central Europe. There are currently seven Tesco Extra stores in Slovakia – three in Bratislava and one each in Zvolen, Trnava, Banská Bystrica and Spišská Nová Ves.
Tesco Ireland claims to be the largest purchaser of Irish food, with an estimated €1.5 billion annually. Tesco Ireland operates a number of Tesco Extra hypermarkets in Ireland, with Clarehall Extra on the Malahide Road being the first to open in 2006. In November 2010, Tesco's largest hypermarket store in Europe opened in Dundalk in County Louth, with a floorspace of .
In April 2011, the Irish Times said that "Increasingly, Ireland is being viewed as a provincial backwater by the parent company – albeit a very profitable little backwater – and all the strategic decisions are being taken in the UK.
In 2008, Tesco opened its first eco store in Tramore, County Waterford. It is expected to use 45% less energy than other Tesco supermarkets of similar size.
| France | 1993 | 2010 | 92 at peak, 1 from 1997 to 2010 | 173,279 (1,870,000) | 937 (10,108) |
| Japan | 2003 | 2012 | 121 | 36,790 (396,000) | 304 (3,273) |
| Malaysia | 2002 | 2021 | 71 | 350,988 (3,778,000) | 7,800 (83,956) |
| Poland | 1995 | 2021 | 429 | 827,394 (8,906,000) | 2,008 (21,617) |
| South Korea | 1999 | 2015 | 458 | 1,166,026 (12,551,000) | 2,546 (27,404) |
| Thailand | 1998 | 2021 | 1,914 | 1,192,039 (12,831,000) | 1,092 (11,750) |
| Turkey | 2003 | 2016 | 191 | 337,052 (3,628,000) | 2,277 (24,514) |
| United States | 2007 | 2013 | 185 | 173,279 (1,870,000) | 937 (10,108) |
In 2007, Tesco began opening new stores under its name in the country, beginning with Beijing. In its peak, most of their stores were based around Shanghai. Tesco had a large store in Weifang, Shandong province, and a further two-floor store in Taizhou, Jiangsu province. Tesco had been increasing its own brand products into the Chinese market as well as introducing the Tesco Express format.
In August 2013, Tesco announced that they were in talks to merge their Chinese operations with the state-run China Resources Enterprise (CRE) to create a joint venture, which would combine their 131 stores with CRE's nearly 3,000 outlets. The venture was officially announced in October, with Tesco holding a 20% stake and was closed in May 2014.
In February 2020, Tesco announced it would completely exit the Chinese market and sell its 20% stake in the venture to CRE for £275 million.
Also in 1997, Tesco opened up a store named "Vin Plus" in Calais which mostly sold wine, beer, and spirits. In June 2010, Tesco announced that the store would close permanently at the end of August, citing the decline of the booze cruise as the reason.
In 2008, Tesco announced their intention to invest an initial £60m ($115m) to open a wholesale cash-and-carry business based in Mumbai with the assistance of the Tata Group. In 2014, the joint venture between Tesco and Tata was confirmed, where investment by the earlier was reportedly 140 million dollars, becoming the first foreign supermarket to enter India. The stores are now operated under the banner Star Bazaar and Star Daily supermarkets.
In April 2007, C-Two Network opened up its first Tesco Express store in Japan, intending to open up 35 new Tesco and Tsurukame stores by 2008. In September, C Two-Network Co, Ltd. was renamed to Tesco Japan Co, Ltd. and later launched a range of software. In December 2009, the first Tesco supermarkets opened in Japan. By August 2011, 29 supermarkets were in operation.
In August 2011, Tesco announced that it would exit the Japanese market and sell a 50% stake of Tesco Japan to ÆON for £40 million. It was revealed that only half of Tesco Japan's stores in Greater Tokyo Area were making a profit and that the market share in Japan was never above 1 percent. In December 2012, ÆON purchased out the remainder stake in Tesco Japan for a minimal 1 yen share and became a fully owned subsidiary. In March 2013, Tesco Japan Co, Ltd. was renamed ÆON Every Co, Ltd. with all Tesco branded stores rebranded under the Acore name. At the end of March 2014, ÆON Every's remaining stores were closed or sold, and the company ceased operations.
By 2012, Tesco Malaysia operated 49 stores that were branded under the Tesco and Tesco Extra names. In April 2013, Tesco Malaysia launched the Grocery Home Shopping Service, where it delivered groceries ordered via the Internet to consumers, with no minimum purchase imposed. In February 2015, Tesco Malaysia expanded to the convenience store market and opened up their first Tesco Ekspres store.
In March 2020, Tesco sold Tesco Malaysia to the Thailand-based Charoen Pokphand for US$10.6bn, including debt, in a deal that included the Thailand operations. In April, Sime Darby agreed to sell their 30% stake in Tesco Malaysia to Charoen Pokphand and Tesco for RM300 million. After the deals closed, the chain was rebranded as Lotus's.
In November 2019, having suffered years of net losses and despite extensive cost-cutting and attempts at streamlining its business model, Tesco announced it would exit the Polish market and sell its entire operations. In June 2020, the Salling Group acquired Tesco Poland's operations, consisting of 301 stores and two logistics centres for £181 million. After the sale, Salling announced they would close 58 stores and rebrand the remaining 243 as Netto, of which it would expand Netto's Polish operations to over 700 stores. The rebranding and closures were done in phases, with the last stores closing in October 2021.
In May 2008, Tesco purchased 36 hypermarkets with a combination of food and non-food products from E-Land for $1.9 billion (£976 million) in its biggest single acquisition, making Tesco the second largest in the country. A majority of the E-Land stores formerly belonged to French retailer Carrefour before 2006, and most of the stores were converted to Homeplus outlets. By that time, Homeplus had 66 outlets. In February 2011, The Tesco-Samsung venture was renamed as Homeplus Co, Ltd. In July, Samsung C&T sold their remaining 5.32% stake to Tesco, making Homeplus a fully owned subsidiary.
In September 2015, Tesco sold Homeplus to MBK Partners, a South Korean buyout firm, which partnered with a Canadian pension fund and Singapore's Temasek Holdings in a transaction worth 4.2 billion pounds.
By 2009, Tesco Lotus operated 380 stores, claiming to serve 20 million customers every month and that 97% of its goods were sourced from Thailand. By March 2013, the Thailand operations were generating £3 billion in revenues and was one of Tesco's largest businesses outside of the UK. In 2014, Tesco Lotus expanded to the convenience store market with 365, aiming to compete with Family Mart and 7-Eleven in the country.
In March 2020, Tesco announced that it would sell Tesco Lotus back to Charoen Pokphand for US$10.6bn, including debt, in a deal that included Tesco's Malaysian operations. After the deal closed, Tesco Lotus was renamed as Lotus's.
In February 2014, Tesco considered selling a stake in the business to BC Partners, the then-owners of Migros Türk, although the talks were held off in May. In June 2016, Tesco announced that they would exit Turkey and sell its 95.5% stake in Tesco Kipa to Migros Türk. The sale was completed in February 2017.
The chain proved to be a financial failure for Tesco. In September 2013, the company announced that they would sell the chain and 150 of its stores to private equity firm Yucaipa Companies. The BBC reported that the remaining 50 stores were expected to close. The deal included Tesco loaning the venture £80m and retaining an option to buy back a stake in the business if Yucaipa succeeded in turning around the group's performance. Fresh & Easy filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy at the beginning of October.
The chain failed to make a change under new ownership, and in October 2015 it was announced that all remaining stores would close. The chain collapsed into bankruptcy the following week, the second in two years. Following this, the remainder of the chain was liquidated.
Beginning in 1997 when Terry Leahy took over as CEO, Tesco began marketing itself using the phrase "The Tesco Way" to describe the company's core purposes, values, principles, and goals This phrase became the standard marketing speak for Tesco as it expanded domestically and internationally under Leahy's leadership, implying a shift by the company to focus on people, both customers, and employees.
A core part of the Tesco expansion strategy has been its innovative use of technology. It was one of the first to build self-service tills and use cameras to reduce queues, and an early adopter of NFC contactless payment card technology. In 2016, Tesco developed a mobile payment wallet, PayQwiq using both NFC contactless and barcode technology to allow payment using mobile phones in-shop (along with supporting other contactless mobile wallets such as ApplePay).
| 22 February 2025 | 69,191 | 2,215 | 1,604 | 23.79 |
| 24 February 2024 | 67,673 | 2,289 | 1,764 | 16.74 |
| 25 February 2023 | 65,762 | 2,076 | 744 | 10.05 |
| 26 February 2022 | 61,344 | 2,197 | 1,483 | 19.34 |
| 27 February 2021 | 57,887 | 825 | 6,147 | 63.80 |
| 29 February 2020 | 64,760 | 1,315 | 973 | 9.99 |
| 15 February 2019 | 63,911 | 1,674 | 1,320 | 13.65 |
| 25 February 2018 | 57,491 | 1,298 | 992 | 14.77 |
| 25 February 2017 | 55,917 | 145 | (54) | (0.49) |
| 28 February 2016 | 53,933 | 202 | 129 | 1.70 |
| 28 February 2015 | 62,284 | (6,376) | (5,766) | (70.82) |
| 22 February 2014 | 70,894 | 3,054 | 2,259 | 32.05 |
| 23 February 2013 | 64,826 | 3,549 | 3,453 | 35.97 |
| 25 February 2012 | 64,539 | 3,985 | 2,814 | 34.98 |
| 26 February 2011 | 67,573 | 3,535 | 2,671 | 33.10 |
| 27 February 2010 | 62,537 | 3,176 | 2,336 | 31.66 |
| 28 February 2009 | 54,300 | 3,128 | 2,166 | 28.92 |
| 23 February 2008 | 47,298 | 2,803 | 2,130 | 26.95 |
| 24 February 2007 | 46,600 | 2,653 | 1,899 | 22.36 |
| 25 February 2006 | 38,300 | 2,210 | 1,576 | 19.70 |
| 26 February 2005 | 33,974 | 1,962 | 1,366 | 17.44 |
| 28 February 2004 | 30,814 | 1,600 | 1,100 | 15.05 |
| 22 February 2003 | 26,337 | 1,361 | 946 | 13.54 |
| 23 February 2002 | 23,653 | 1,201 | 830 | 12.05 |
| 24 February 2001 | 20,988 | 1,054 | 767 | 11.29 |
| 26 February 2000 | 18,796 | 933 | 674 | 10.07 |
| 27 February 1999 | 17,158 | 842 | 606 | 9.14 |
| 28 February 1998 | 16,452 | 760 | 532 | 8.12 |
Despite being in a recession, Tesco made record profits for a British retailer in the year to February 2010, during which its underlying pre-tax profits increased by 10.1% to £3.4 billion. Tesco then planned to create 16,000 new jobs, 9,000 in the UK. In 2011 the retailer reported its poorest six-monthly UK sales figures for 20 years, attributed to consumers' reduced non-food spending and a growth in budget rivals.
By 2014, Tesco appeared to have lost some of its appeal to customers. The share price lost 49 per cent of its value up to October as it struggled to fend off competition from rivals Aldi and Lidl. In October 2014, Tesco suspended 8 executives following its announcement the previous month that it had previously overstated its profits by £250 million. The misreporting resulted in almost £2.2 billion being wiped off the value of the company's stock market value. The suspended executives included former commercial director Kevin Grace and UK managing director Chris Bush. The profit overstatement was subsequently revised upwards to £263 million following an investigation by the accountancy firm Deloitte, and it was clarified that the inflated profit figure was the result of Tesco bringing forward rebates from suppliers. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) confirmed on 29 October 2014 that it was carrying out a criminal investigation into the accounting irregularities but declined to give further details. As a result, Tesco agreed to pay a fine and compensation. Three executives charged with fraud and false accounting in connection with the misreporting were cleared of the charges in 2018–2019.
| Tesco | 28.5% | 0.7% |
| Sainsbury's | 15.9% | 0.2% |
| Asda | 12.6% | 1.0% |
| Morrisons | 8.6% | 0.2% |
| Aldi | 10.2% | 0.1% |
| Lidl | 7.2% | 0.3% |
In terms of the wider UK retail market, Tesco sales account for around one pound in every ten spent in British shops. In 2007 it was reported that its share was even larger, with one pound in every seven spent going to Tesco. In 2006, Inverness was branded as "Tescotown", because well over 50p in every £1 spent on food is believed to be spent in its three Tesco shops. By 2014 competition from other retailers led to a fall in Tesco's market share to 28.7%; this was the lowest level in a decade.
In 1992, Tesco started a "computers for schools scheme", offering computers in return for vouchers given to Tesco customers and donated by them to schools and hospitals. Until 2004, £92 million of equipment went to these organizations. The scheme was also implemented in Poland.
In 2009, Tesco used the phrase, "Change for Good" as advertising, which is trademarked by Unicef for charity usage but not for commercial or retail use, which prompted the agency to say, "It is the first time in Unicef's history that a commercial entity has purposely set out to capitalize on one of our campaigns and subsequently damage an income stream which several of our programmes for children are dependent on." It went on to call on the public "...who have children's welfare at heart, to consider carefully who they support when making consumer choices."
Tesco's own-labels personal care and household products are stated to be cruelty-free, meaning that they are not tested on animals.
In June 2011, Tesco announced that it was working with 2degrees Network to create an online hub as part of its target to reduce its supply chain carbon footprint by 30% by 2020.
In September 2011, a Greenpeace report revealed that Tesco supermarkets in China were selling vegetables that contained pesticides at levels exceeding the legal limit, or were illegal. A green vegetable sample from Tesco turned up methamidophos and monocrotophos, the use of which has been prohibited in China since the beginning of 2007.
Adverts in the early 1990s had a man called David, portrayed by Dudley Moore, on the hunt for free-range chickens from France and discovering many goods from around the world to purchase for Tesco. Late 2000s adverts included many celebrities and celebrity voice-overs such as The Spice Girls and the voice of actors James Nesbitt and Jane Horrocks.
Tesco's main advertising slogan is "Every little helps". Its advertisements in print and on television mainly consist of product shots (or an appropriate image, such as a car when advertising petrol) against a white background, with a price or appropriate text (e.g., "Tesco Value") superimposed on a red circle.
Tesco's in-shop magazine began in 2004, and is the largest-circulation magazine in the United Kingdom, with a circulation of 1.5 million .
In November 2013, Tesco announced it would introduce face-scanning technology developed by Amscreen at all of its 450 UK petrol stations to target advertisements to individual customers.
In September 2025, an RTÉ investigation found that Tesco was selling products supplied by factories linked to a forced labour programme.
In November 2007, Tesco sued a Thai academic and a former minister for civil libel and criminal defamation, insisting that the two pay £1.6 million and £16.4 million and receive two years' imprisonment respectively. They have been alleged to have misstated that Tesco's Thai market amounts to 37% of its global revenues, amongst criticism of Tesco's propensity to put small retailers out of business.
In August 2013, Tesco was fined £300,000 after admitting that it misled customers over the pricing of "half-price" strawberries.
In May 2021, undercover footage at a Tesco supplier showed piglets deemed too small or weak for the abattoir being hammered to death or swung against a concrete floor by farm workers. In July 2021, an investigation showed chickens at a Tesco supplier being left to die of thirst in overcrowded sheds, with some resorting to cannibalism and many suffering ammonia burns.
In 2024, Tesco faced a campaign led by the animal welfare organization Mercy for Animals urging the company to ban the practice of eyestalk ablation, in which the eyestalks of female shrimp are crushed or removed, as well as the use of ice slurry in its shrimp supply chain. Advocates claimed that ice slurry does not effectively render shrimp unconscious before slaughter. In August 2024, Tesco announced a new decapod crustacean welfare policy that bans eyestalk ablation and requires electrical stunning prior to slaughter for whiteleg shrimp starting in 2026 and bans eyestalk ablation for Penaeus monodon beginning in 2027.
In May 2019, an undercover investigation of a Tesco egg supplier in Asia found that Tesco was serving Southeast Asian customers eggs from battery cage farms. In August 2019, an investigation documented similar conditions at the company producing Tesco's own-brand eggs in Malaysia. In response to the investigation, Tesco committed to using only cage-free eggs in Thailand and Malaysia by 2028.
In June 2008, the government announced that it was closing a tax loophole being used by Tesco. The scheme, identified by British magazine Private Eye, utilized offshore holding companies in Luxembourg and partnership agreements to reduce corporation tax liability by up to £50 million a year. Another scheme previously identified by Private Eye involved depositing £1 billion in a Swiss partnership, and then loaning that money to overseas Tesco shops, so that profit could be transferred indirectly through interest payments. This scheme was still in operation and was estimated to be costing the UK exchequer up to £20 million a year in corporation tax. Tax expert Richard Murphy has provided an analysis of this avoidance structure.
Tax avoidance has not always been related to corporation tax. A number of companies including Tesco used a scheme to avoid VAT by deeming 2.5% of purchases paid for by card to be a 'card transaction fee', which reduced the company's tax liability without changing the charge to the customer. Such schemes came to light after HMRC litigated against Debenhams over the scheme in 2005.
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