Principal Software Dev Engineer

The UK based, multinational general merchandise retailer and groceries, Tesco Plc (commonly known as Tesco) is the ninth-biggest retailer in the world graded by revenues third-biggest retailer in the world ranked by gross revenues. Jack Cohen founded Tesco in the year 1919 as a group of market stalls and later in the year 1924 purchased a shipment of tea from T. E. Stockwell, thereby combining these initials with his surname’s and opening the first Tesco shop in the year 1931 in Burnt Oak, Barnet. The business of Tesco grew so rapidly that the company had around 100 shops across the country by 1939. The Fortune 500 list of 2019 ranks Tesco at #102 (a 10-step downfall from the previous list) and as of 22 April 2015, with a market capitalization of approximately £18.1 billion, it was the 28th-largest of any company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange.

Tesco’s Indian subsidiary was established in Bengaluru in 2004 as a multi-disciplinary team of serving their shoppers a little better every day across markets with the aim to create a sustainable competitive advantage for Tesco by delivering cost savings, standardizing processes, empowering colleagues and enabling agility.

Organization Structure:

Businesses:

• Tesco UK: over 3,400 stores and more than 300,000 colleagues working together to serve customers a little better every day.
• Tesco in India: Tesco Bengaluru team involved in creating and executing strategic initiatives covering IT, Financial, Commercial, and Property, among others.
• Tesco Malaysia: stores in Malaysia have a combined floor space of over 4 million square feet through a network of over 50 hypermarkets.
• Tesco Lotus: 2,000+ shops across Thailand accompanied by online shopping platforms, collectively working to serve 15 million+ consumers each week.
• Tesco Czech Republic: penetrated the Czech market in 1996 with the purchase of K-Mart shops, including a number of departmental stores, selling under the alias Máj. Zabka and Koruna convenience format stores were also added in 2011.
• Tesco Hungary: entered the market in 1995, today more than 200 stores are operated across the country which together directly contribute over 1 percent of GDP to the country’s economy.
• Tesco Ireland: entered the market in 1997 Tesco now is one of the biggest private-sector employers in Ireland employing over 13,000 colleagues across its 151 stores, head office and distribution centres.
• Tesco Poland: nearly 400 stores and more than 22,000 employees, serving more than 5 million customers per week makes Poland Tesco’s largest Central European market.
• Tesco Slovakia: penetrated Slovakia's market in 1996 by the purchase of seven K-Mart Departmental Stores and now has 150+ stores, and employs 9,000+ people.
• Tesco China: international sourcing headquarters based in Hong Kong and currently around £2bn worth of goods and services bought from China for the Tesco Group every year.
• Tesco Bank: established in the July of 1997, and which has been a fully controlled subsidiary of Tesco plc since 2008, Tesco bank was established as a component of a 50% JV among Tesco and RBS.
• Dunnhumby: a global leader in revealing and implementing shopper insight to build more personalized retail experiences, Dunnhumby supports Tesco and suppliers to execute strategic actions.

Subsidiaries:

• Tesco Stores Ltd.
• Tesco Bank
• Tesco Mobile
• Tesco Ireland
• Tesco Family Dining Ltd.
• Dunnhumby
• Spenhill
• Booker Group
• Jack's

Mergers & Acquisitions:

• Booker: cash-and-carry group and UK’s largest grocery wholesaler, Booker was acquired by Tesco in a £3.7bn takeover in January 2017.
• HIT Hypermarkets: as a measure to strengthen its presence in Central Europe, Tesco acquired 13 Poland-based HIT Hypermarkets in July 2002.
• Mobcast: a white-label ebook platform provider, Mobcast was acquired by Tesco Plc in September 2012 for $7.1 million, thereby giving Tesco access to a catalog of more than 130,000 titles, as well as an established cloud infrastructure for purchasing and storage.
• Hymall: a Ting Hsin subsidiary that runs 25 hypermarkets, Hymall’s 50% stake was acquired by Tesco in July 2004 for £140 million as a step to establish a presence in the world's fastest-growing retail market of China.

Corporate Social Responsibility:

The philosophy at Tesco is that every little help makes a big difference. CSR initiatives undertaken by Tesco in India are focused around three core themes of empowerment through skill-building, environment protection, and preventive healthcare. Initiatives undertaken are:

• Preventive Healthcare
  • Funding support for Sankara Eye Foundation: under Sankara Eye Foundation’s ‘Gift of Vision’ program, Tesco India has extended funding support for vision restoration surgeries for 1600 disadvantaged patients during the year.
  • Funding support for Akshaya Patra’s kitchen: Akshaya Patra Foundation provides mid-day meals for over 5000 school children every day. Provided kitchen equipment including five rice cauldrons, three vegetable cutting machines and two heavy-duty wet grinders to the foundation.
  • Health camps: conducted health camps across 21 schools in Whitefield, covering over 2530 school children.
  • Water ATM: set up an innovative water ATM at a village near Hoskote in Bengaluru to provide much needed clean drinking water to the villagers.
  • Funding support to Association for People with Disability (APD): provided funding support to APD’s Spinal Cord Injury Centre for mobility aids support and medical/ surgical interventions.
• Skill-building: under the ‘School Adoption Model’, Tesco Bengaluru supports five government schools in the Whitefield locality through sustained engagement. It supports these schools through the provision of learning aids, funding the physical infrastructure needs of the school and engagement with the students in co-curricular and extra-curricular activities such as digital literacy, sports, craft, music, language skills and more. The company also undertook the funding of civil works within the schools (playground leveling, painting, roofing, electrical and plumbing works), as well as support them in other ways such as the provision of drinking water in three government schools, sports mentoring and sponsoring sports equipment for seven schools.
• Google Map: Tesco Bengaluru launched its first-ever CSR Impact Google map, which highlights the scale of commitment the organization has made in the communities it serves. The map was made utilizing our in-house talent.
• e-Toilets: Tesco Bengaluru inaugurated state-of-the-art innovative e-toilets in EPIP, Whitefield under their sanitation project.
• Sports a mentorship program: Sports Mentorship Programme launched for their adopted government schools, to provide mentorship in sports, in addition to making available sports equipment to the students.
• Promoting usage of paper bags: as part of our initiatives under environment, our colleague volunteers regularly engage themselves in paper-bag making activities. These handmade paper bags are then distributed among the small vendors in the Whitefield area to encourage reduced use of plastic.
• ‘Know our partner NGOs’ initiative: Tesco Bengaluru hosted its partner NGOs, who were encouraged to put up stalls on campus, as part of the CSR Month.