Jack Cohen (businessman)

Cohen was born in Whitechapel in the East End of London and grew up at 91 Ashfield Street. His family were Jewish: his father, Avroam Kohen, was a Polish immigrant from Łódź who worked as a tailor, and his mother was Sime Zaremba. Cohen survived, thanks to a nurse who helped him stay afloat in the water. He returned to England after contracting malaria, and was demobilised in 1919. They had two daughters, Sybil Irene (1926–2005) and Shirley (1930-2026). He continued to work after a colostomy operation in 1958, standing down as chairman of Tesco in 1969. ==Career==

Cohen was reluctant to return to tailoring after the First World War, and he established himself as a market stall holder in Hackney, in London's East End, by purchasing surplus NAAFI stock with his £30 demob money. In 1924, he created the Tesco brand name from the initials of a partner tea supplier, T. E. Stockwell (formerly Messrs Torring and Stockwell of Mincing Lane), and the first two letters of his surname. The market trading business became difficult to expand because partners tended to be unreliable, so eventually he changed to high street shops without doors, looking and sounding as far as possible like market stalls. The first two Tesco stores opened at Becontree and Burnt Oak in 1931. By 1939, Cohen owned a hundred Tesco stores. His expansion was helped by the growth of new shopping centres. Retailers are often reluctant to be the first to sign a contract in a new centre lest they become the only ones. With his market experience and courage, Cohen was often the one to take that risk and he had ways of drawing a crowd. Developers became keen to help him with his start-up costs because of his ability to get people into a new centre, benefiting the other shops. The first Tesco bank account was opened at the Midland Bank in the Narroway, Mare Street, Hackney. A plaque in the branch later marked this event. On 2 July 1937 he changed his name by deed poll to John Edward Cohen at the suggestion of his bank manager, whose staff had trouble distinguishing between the many Jacob Cohens banking at the branch in Hackney. In 1932, having opened his first Tesco-branded shops, Cohen travelled to the United States to review US self-service supermarkets. At the time he was not impressed and felt they would never be accepted in the UK. After the war he took another look and listened to his son-in-law Hyman Kreitman, who was very keen. He opened one of the first British supermarkets. The new strategy was led by Kreitman, who understood how to manage this new style of shop and the crucial tasks of mass buying, selling and logistics. Tesco grew strongly. It gradually drew ahead of its rivals and took over many of them. He expanded the company by takeovers and mergers, making it the fourth largest chain in the United Kingdom by 1968 (behind Co-op, Fine Fare, and Allied Suppliers). He campaigned against retail price maintenance, tackled in the second half of the 1960s by the Resale Prices Act 1964, and was a leading instigator of the Green Shield trading stamps scheme in 1963. ==Honours==

Cohen was appointed Knight Bachelor in the 1969 New Year Honours. He was master of the Worshipful Company of Carmen in 1976–77. In 2009, an English Heritage blue plaque was placed at 91 Ashfield Street, Whitechapel, London, where Cohen lived as a child. In addition, the name T.E. Stockwell was introduced the same year for use on selected food products, replacing the Tesco Value brand on these goods. ==References==