Top 10 Retailers Around the World

#4 Tesco

Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Countries of Operation: 14

Annual Revenue: $90.43 billion (as of 2009)

The British multi-national grocery and merchandise retailer, Tesco comes at the fourth position on the list of top ten retailers of the world. Headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom, the company has stores in 14 countries across Asia, Europe and North America. It is the grocery market leader in the U.K., Malaysia, the Republic of Ireland and Thailand. The company was founded as a group of market stalls in 1919 by Jack Cohen. Later Cohen purchased a shipment of tea from T E Stockwell and the first Tesco store got opened in 1929 in Burnt Oak, Middlesex. Then the business got expanded rapidly, and by 1939 he could open more than 100 Tesco stores across the country. Since then the company has diversified itself into areas such as the retailing of books, clothing, electronics, furniture, petrol, software etc; and providing financial services, telecom services and internet services and more.