Case Study Report: Tesco

History and Background
In 1919 when Jack Cohen started selling surplus groceries from a stall in the East End of London, Mr Cohen made a profit of £1 from sales of £4 on his first day.
The Tesco brand we know so well first appeared five years later in 1924 when he bought a shipment of tea from a Mr T. E Stockwell. The initials and letters were combined to form Tes-co and in 1929 Mr Cohen opened the Tesco store in Burnt Oak, North London. The brand continued its rise in the 1930s when Mr Cohen built a headquarters and warehouse in North London and in 1932 Tesco became a private limited company. In 1947 Tesco Stores (Holdings) Ltd floated on the stock exchange with a share price of 25p.

Expansion: In the 1950s Tesco’s bought 70 Williams stores and 200 Harrow stores, followed by 97 Charles Philips stores and the Victor Value chain in the early 1960s. During the 60s supermarket started to expand rapidly by selling more products in ever larger stores. In 1961 Tesco Leicester entered the Guinness Book of Records as the largest store in Europe and in 1968 Tesco opened its first 'superstore' in Crawley, West Sussex. In 1974 Tesco opened its first petrol stations, and would become the UK's largest independent petrol retailer. By 1979 total sales topped £1bn, and by 1982 sales had doubled to more than £2bn. In 1987 Tesco successfully completed a hostile takeover of supermarket rival Hilliard’s for £220m.

Tesco.com was launched in 2000 and the supermarket continued to expand its range of products, which now includes clothes, electrical and personal finance products. In 2004 Tesco entered the broadband market. In 2006, the retailer announced ambitious plans to open stores in the US under the name 'Fresh and Easy' and funded by existing resources. Tesco now operates in 13 countries. In 2008 the retail giant took its conquest of the UK one step further by buying up some rival Somerfield stores on remote islands in Scotland, giving Tesco a presence in every single postcode area in the country. As it stands there is only one postcode in the UK - in Harrogate in North Yorkshire - which does not have a Tesco. 2013 saw Tesco report its first drop in profits for 20 years. The decline would continue into 2014.
Present: Tesco reports its worst performance for 20 years on June 4th. On September 22nd Tesco admitted that it has overstated its half-year profit forecast by £250m. Tesco launches investigation and suspends UK chief executive Chris Bush, UK finance director Carl Rogberg, UK food commercial director John Scouler, and food sourcing director Matt Simister. 2014 has been an intense year for Tesco

Why vacancies occur?
The labour market is a dynamic, always flexible, ever changing area and because of this there are many reasons why job vacancies occur. A few reasons are:
An employee may retire, or resign to start in business, or take a job elsewhere
If an existing employee leaves, or takes a job somewhere else, the business needs to fill their spot with someone else to cope with the need of work
An employee may be away from work because of illness or accident or a vacation period and this may create a temporary vacancy
A temporary vacancy is needed so the business can cope with the amount of work, paperwork, manual labour etc.
An employee may be promoted to a higher position and reshuffling of staff may mean there will be a job vacancy.
This creates a new vacancy and new opportunities for existing employees.
An employee may be discharged for unsatisfactory work or failure to get along with others
This is detrimental to a business, as it reduces productivity and efficacy, especially if teamwork is important in that business, which is why a new vacancy occurs
An increase in the demand for products or services offered by a company or other organization may mean that the staff will have to be increased.
A new organization has been established and so staffs are required.
A new business needs employees for it