1.

0 Brief Background of TESCO

Tesco is one of the leading grocery shops in the UK founded in 1924 by John Edward Cohen in
the East End of London. The name Tesco, was first used on tea, and was derived from the
initials of Cohens tea supplier, T E Stockwell, combined with the first two letters of Cohen.
Tesco Stores Limited was incorporated in 1932. In 1935, Jack Cohen visited the USA and was
impressed by the supermarkets self-service system which enabled more people to be served
faster, with lower labour costs. In 1947, the Tesco branch in St Albans, a small shop by 21st
century standards (200 square meters) was the first Tesco to be converted to self service,
although it didnt immediately catch the publics imagination. In the early 1960s, Cohen lobbied
Parliament to have the Retail Price Maintenance (RPM) act abolished, efforts supported by
Edward Heath. The RPM allowed manufacturers and suppliers to set the price of goods thus
preventing large retailers, who could buy in bulk and had greater buying power, from benefiting
from economies of scale and undercutting the prices of smaller shops. To get around this, Tesco
offered another incentive to get customers through the doors.
In 1964, Parliament passed the Resale Prices Act, curtailing RPM, which by 1979 remained in
force only on books and pharmaceutical goods. Until the 1970s, Tesco operated on the pile it
high, sell it cheap formula Cohen had imported from the USA. However, the market was
changing, leaving the company with slim margins and a serious image problem. Under the
leadership of Ian McLaren, who succeeded Jack Cohen in 1973, Tesco decided to try something
dramatic and different: to become an inspirational mass retailer. Now Tesco stands far ahead of
its competitors because of Tescos well-organised strategy and quick response to the customers
demand.

2.0 Mission, vision, ethical, environmental and social perspectives of Tesco

2.1 Tescos mission
Mission is the prime goal of an organisation to achieve the end results. Through minute
observation it can be said that Tescos mission is to improve more opportunities for the
customers offering them loyalty cards and convince them to buy the double even in the economic
downturn. Tesco takes pride in vast productivity and continuous improvement of the products.
A research by Sufi and Lyons (2003) from the literature shows that most of the writers are agreed
upon defining mission statement as: concern for the customers purpose, identity/ image,
differentiation factors, corporate values, products, markets and concern for the survival, growth,
profitability, company philosophy and employees and social concern.
Tesco is now a brand name meeting the demands of the customers operating throughout the
world.

2.2 Tescos vision

Vision can be defined as the desired or intended future state of an organization or enterprise in
terms of its fundamental objective and/or strategic direction. Vision is a long term view,
sometimes describing how the organization would like the world in which it operates to be.
Tescos vision reflects in their slogan Every Little Helps a lot. As a fast growing company it has
gone from simply selling groceries to providing anything from loans to mobile phones. By
setting out in all these new directions Tesco endeavours to be close to the customers.