Tesco Competitors ans Similar Companies

Tesco is a British company specializing in the retail of groceries and general merchandise. It started operating more than a century ago in London, England. Nowadays, it is one of the largest retail companies in the world with more than 3400 stores in the country and around 5000 stores worldwide. 

NAME	Tesco
FOUNDED	1919
HEADQUARTERS	Welwyn Garden City, England
STATUS	Public Limited Company
INDUSTRY SECTOR	Retail
EMPLOYEES	367 321
TRADING SYMBOL	LON: TSCO

How Tesco Makes Money

Tesco’s revenue in 2021 was 57.89 billion GBP which translates to roughly $72.65B. Let’s see how Tesco manages to make this staggering amount of money yearly.

Onsite Retail

The largest part of Tesco’s revenue comes from selling merchandise onsite. With thousands of stores worldwide and hundreds of thousands of employees, it’s not difficult for this retail brand to consistently make a lot of money. They focus on providing a good shopping experience to their customers, as well as good prices and product choices. 

Online Shopping

Another way Tesco makes money is through the online store. Online shopping offers the easiest and fastest way to stock up on groceries. Customers can select all the items they need and either have them delivered to their homes or stop by the nearest Tesco store to pick them up. Plus, the Clubcard loyalty program makes it even cheaper to shop at Tesco, so this online store has gathered around 20 million online users so far. 

Tesco Similar Companies

Tesco is one of the favorite store chains of European customers. Good prices, convenient locations, and pleasant staff make this retailer one of the top choices for people who have access to it. However, they are not without competitors. At this moment, the biggest rivals to Tesco are Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Amazon, Waitrose, Lidl, M&S Food, and ALDI. Let’s discuss Tesco’s competitors in more detail and see what makes them a potential threat to this multinational retailer. 

Asda

Asda is a supermarket chain with hundreds of stores in Britain. It was founded in 1949 and has steadily grown ever since. Nowadays, it sells groceries, clothing, home decor, and more at reasonable prices and with the help of almost 150 000 employees. 

Asda reported a revenue of 30 billion dollars in 2021. While this is significantly less than what Tesco made in the previous year, we need to keep in mind that Asda is a much younger company with 30 years less experience than Tesco. Also, this company is owned by one of the largest retailers in the world – Walmart, so it’s safe to say that we will be seeing huge progress in the upcoming years. We can expect larger revenue, more stores, and more hired employees, with the potential of getting close to Tesco’s numbers in all three departments soon. 

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	EMPLOYEES
$30.24B	Undisclosed	Leeds, UK	142,244

Morrisons 

Morrisons is another huge retailer that can compete with Tesco. In fact, it is the fourth-largest retailer in England and it was founded in 1899. The first owner’s name was William Morrison, hence the name of this supermarket chain. 

This company has 497 stores all over the UK. It hires over 100 000 employees and managed to see revenue of 23 billion dollars in 2021. It had around 11 million customers each week in the previous year. 

Morrisons also offers an online shopping experience. Its Click & Collect program is another convenient way to shop. Customers can select the items they need and pick them up the following day at the nearest store, with the minimum purchase being 25 pounds. 

This retailer is one of the four biggest retailers in the UK. Although the overall numbers aren’t a current threat to Tesco, we can expect Morrison’s to grow in the next few years.

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	EMPLOYEES
$23B	Undisclosed	Bradford, UK	118 000

Sainsbury’s

This retailer is one of the biggest, if not the biggest competitor of Tesco. It is the second-largest retailer in the UK, employing nearly 120 000 people in almost 1500 stores, out of which 600 are supermarkets and 800 are convenience stores. 

Sainsbury’s sells groceries, clothes, and food. If you are not sure what meal to prepare, you can find numerous delicious recipes on their website, which is a great small addition to the amazing service this retailer offers. 

Taking into account Sainsbury’s good service, affordable products, kind staff, and growth in the past few years, we can say that this retailer is another Tesco competitor. 

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	EMPLOYEES
$40B	Undisclosed	London, UK	117 000

Amazon (UK)

Tesco and Amazon are not in the entirely same area of business. However, Amazon sells everything Tesco does, and more. 

Considering that sales in the UK have increased by more than $17 billion since the pandemic started, we can expect Amazon UK to grow even bigger in the next few years. This, the range of products and the convenience of online shopping make it one of the top 8 Tesco competitors. 

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	EMPLOYEES
$31.9B	Undisclosed	London, UK	24 000

Waitrose

Waitrose was founded in 1904 and it is one of the biggest supermarket chains in the United Kingdom. Waitrose sells food, drinks, and other groceries. This supermarket chain offers online shopping as well, with the home delivery option. It regularly offers discounts, but it is considered one of the most expensive supermarkets in the UK. 

Although Tesco is a lot cheaper, Waitrose is considered to be a high-end supermarket. The prices, the choice of the products, and the quality of meat and dairy attract a certain kind of clientele that probably wouldn’t shop at Tesco. This is why Waitrose is another Tesco rival in the United Kingdom. 

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	EMPLOYEES
$9.16B	Undisclosed	Bracknell, UK	55 800

Lidl 

Lidl is a multinational retailer from Germany that started operating in the UK in 1994. Now, it has over 800 stores and 13 regional distribution centers in this country. This company sells drinks, groceries, clothes, meat, dairy, and other foods at low prices and in comfortable stores. 

Their revenue in 2021 was close to 10 billion dollars (if talking only about the UK), which is much lower than Tesco’s revenue from the same year. However, Lidl is constantly expanding, and they are planning to open even more stores in the UK in the following years. If this happens, Lidl can easily become one of Tesco’s competitors by 2025. However, this retailer should consider starting home delivery to expand the services and convenience it offers. 

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	EMPLOYEES
$95B	Undisclosed	Baden-Wuerttember, Germany	310 000

M&S Food

Marks & Spencer is a multinational retailer specializing in clothes, home products, cosmetics, beauty products, and food. It was founded in 1884 and now it has almost 1500 stores in total and employs almost 80 000 people. High-quality products with a wide selection of brands make it one of the favorite retailers in the UK. 

M&S has an online shop and offers free home delivery, as well as six different ways to pay for the order. It is a practical, relatively inexpensive, and diverse store, so it could be considered one of Tesco’s competitors in the future. 

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	EMPLOYEES
$7.32B (food industry only)$13B (total)	Undisclosed	London, UK	78 031

ALDI

ALDI is a supermarket chain from Essen, Germany, that was founded in 1946. It operates in twenty countries and has over 10 000 stores. Aldi has nearly a thousand stores in the UK and employs around 36 000 people. 

Overall, ALDI is cheaper than Tesco, while offering similar types of products. It reported a revenue of over 18 billion dollars in 2021, over 10% more than in the year before that. If ALDI continues to expand and grow at this rate, it can become one of Tesco’s serious competitors. 

Annual Revenue	Funding	Headquarters	EMPLOYEES
Over $80B (The Aldi global empire)	Undisclosed	Essen, Germany	Over 155 000

Conclusion 

Tesco is the largest retailer in the UK, with nearly 35 000 stores in this country and over 350 000 employees. While it is not easy to compete with this supermarket chain, Tesco’s biggest competitor is Sainsbury’s (locally). While it still reports smaller revenue and employs significantly fewer people, its steady growth seems promising, so it could be able to catch up to Tesco in the future. Other companies that may become a threat to the largest supermarket company in the UK are Asda, Morrison’s, Amazon, Waitrose, Lidl, M&S Food, and ALDI. None of these companies are close to Tesco’s numbers right now, but all of them have been expanding in the previous decade and are expected to continue growing in the future. Thus, we can say that Tesco’s first place is safe, at least for now.