Tesco: from Domestic Operator to Multinational Giant (Case Study from Exploring Strategy 9/E)

International competitiveness: Even when the TESCO is doing its business in its own country, other international competitors or international or doing the same business could affect its operation or marketing. For example the Wall-Mart, which is doing the similar business, could impact its sale. If the competition given by WALL Mart is tough then it would be difficult for TESCO to operate there

Tesco Plc is a Public Limited Company who securities and shares are included in the stock exchange and list of different countries. In UK, companies like Tesco Plc are registered under the companies Act 1980 and its shared are offered to public in regards of limited liability. In addition, Tesco is associated with retail sector that carries out a majority business of the company and contribute their share in country’s economy to a huge scale. Apart from the retail sector, Tesco Plc faced tough competition all over the world from companies like Wal-Mart, Asda, Sainsbury, and others. Although, Tesco is not in dominating position in the current retail market in the UK, but the company is one of the biggest retail companies working in the UK, North America, Asia, Europe and other. The company

Purpose – This article examines the internationalisation of Tesco and extracts the salient lessons learned from this process.

Tesco is very fortunate as there are few other large supermarket companies. This means that the food retail market is quite disciplined as the supermarkets have a set approach to price setting. Discipline stops them destroying each other in a profit war.

The Americans were confused whether it was a convenience store or a discount store. (Sonne & Evans, 2012). This was not an American style. Tesco was overconfident that British and Americans speak the same language therefore it shouldn’t be too hard convincing the customers but Tesco didn’t realise that British and Americans have a totally different culture. (Tesco close American strores,2012, para 6). Any business experiencing environmental problems are likely to experience failure, for example Nokia struggled due to rise of smart phones. Tesco’s success in UK was due to its use of consumer data garnered from loyalty cards but that might not be enough for American market to be convinced. Isomorphism states that for a business to be successful it must be able respond to factors of the environment effectively that affects them. Tesco’s did chose a favourable environment to do business because during it research Tesco found that west coast was one of the healthy eating rout. (Geoghegan, 2011,para 25). Somewhere during their research Tesco did forget that America has the highest obesity rate in world at 30.6%. (Health statistics, 2013). Therefore they are the biggest buyers of fast foods in the world. Another important environmental factor Tesco should have used to manipulate the American customers was through heavy advertising. Fresh & Easy should have used sports celebrities to promote the supermarket as one of the

Tesco operates in 14 different countries. Therefore its performance may be influenced by the local legislation and political factors. There are

Tesco use many strategies to adapt to the culture they are working in, which will encourage more customers to shop from their and beat their local competitors. However, Tesco in the UK provide many different products to appeal to different ethnicities and cultures including their own branded food.

Tesco can be said to be a global leader in the UK retail business. It is one of the leading world retailers. The company started using the trading name TESCO in the 1920s and since the group has expanded in many ways venturing in different markets and with interest in different sectors. Over the years, Tesco has recorded growth which has been achieved through different strategies. There has been emphasis on the growth of Core UK business in order to expand internationally. This growth has allowed the company to position itself in food and non-food sectors based on retailing services. Over the years, the company has witnessed financial fortunes which have been reflected in its growing sales. Sales have risen from 31,726,280 from 2013 to 32,074,650 in 2014 (Kantar, 2014.) This has been achieved through growth strategies which have seen the company expand its retail outlets and at the same time enter into new markets with high growth potential using their famous ‘every little helps’ branding along the way. The ‘Every little helps’ branding helped Tesco’s attract 1.3 million new customers in the period from 1990-1995, and the campaign achieved good effects on staff morale, attracting quality marketers to join Tesco, directly affected the share price and allowed the brand to move into non-grocery sectors where brand credibility is a key requirement. Disadvantages….limitations etc

Tesco PLC, the top three retailer in the world, which was establish by Jack Cohen in 1919 year, which has near 100-Year history. In these days, it has been thrived to 12 country all over the world, including United Kingdom, Malaysia, India, Hungary, Ireland, Kipa, Slovakia, Poland, Czech, Thailand, even South Korea, and China (Tescoplc.com, 2012). Tesco is a public limited company. According to Marcouse (2011:92), “Public limited company (Plc) is a larger type of company that must have at least £50,000 of share capital and has its shares traded on the stock market”, therefore Tesco can have greater capital source and shareholders in their business.

As I have mentioned before, this research paper is being taken exclusively with the aim to evaluate the Tesco’s performance in both financial and business terms over a three years period. Since the financials will be compared with its three year

Tesco is one of Britain’s leading food retailers and has 586 stores. From 1992, Tesco has grown greatly and has increased its market share from 10.4% to 15.2%. This increase in customers has also given Tesco a large amount of profit.

TESCO is top leading retailer in UK. It manages over a thousand supermarkets, hypermarkets, and convenience store in the United Kingdom, Ireland, central Europe, and Asia. TESCO started life in 1919 when Jack Cohen started surplus groceries from a stall in the East end of London. MR Cohen made profit of 1 from sales of 4 on his first day. TESCO brand first appear five years after in 1942 when he bought shipment of tea from a MR T. E Stockwell. From that time TESCO slowly improve in retail business and now they are take top position in UK retail business. Tesco aim is provide best products for their customer and make sure about customer requirements.

Established in 1919 by Jack Cohen from a market stall in London’s East End, Tesco has grown and became the leading multinational retailer in the UK with a wide range of products. Tesco’s operations in the UK are the largest within Tesco PLC (Tesco, 2014). The success of Tesco lies in its strategic management. This analysis will look into Tesco’s business in the UK by following a structure of four main parts: Tesco’s value chain management; Tesco’s important stakeholders and its managing them; Tesco’s attempt in competing with other rivals and finally, potential international opportunities for Tesco to get more profit.

The factors that contributed in the growth were aggressive marketing campaigns with the aim to promote its brand and product. The company gained the competitive advantage by enhancing the services it offered like making online shopping easy and cheap with almost every product available to online customer as to in-store consumer. The company’s strategy to enter international market also contributed in its growth as the number of stores was increased; however, the factors involved in decrease in G.P include the closure of its Strategic Business Unit in some foreign countries. (TESCO 2011-12 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9583264/Tesco-profits-fall-for-first-time-in-18-years.html )

Since acquiring number one ranking in 1996, Tesco has developed a successful multiformat strategy that has accelerated its advantage. Its UK sales are now 71% larger than Sainsbury’s. Also the Competition Commission’s report makes it very difficult for a competitor to challenge its scale and has effectively scuppered Wal-Mart’s chances of stealing UK leadership. Therefore, Tesco is in an enormously strong position in its domestic market.